YouTube adds shopping features to AI search tool, Ask YouTube

Official Ask YouTube demonstration from YouTube’s Sept. 23, 2026 announcement, presented with the official YouTube wordmark. Background created with AI; product interface and creator image… — Image credit: Search Engine Journal

YouTube integrated new shopping features into its experimental AI search tool, Ask YouTube, on Sept. 23, aiming to improve how users research products on the platform.

The updates allow Ask YouTube to display product review videos within comparison tables, detailing attributes and categories, and enable users to ask direct follow-up questions on video watch pages.

When users search for product reviews, Ask YouTube can now present videos in a structured comparison table, highlighting key product attributes and categories, according to YouTube.

After selecting a review, users can pose further questions about products directly on the video’s watch page, said Johanna Voolich, YouTube’s Vice President of Product Management for Viewer Products.

The search-specific version of Ask YouTube is currently an experiment available to a limited number of users in the United States who search in English across various devices, with plans for gradual expansion.

The watch-page iteration of Ask YouTube has broader availability, supporting dozens of countries and languages for signed-in users 13 and older.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai reported that more than 140 million users engaged with Ask YouTube on the watch page in June.

YouTube prioritizes relevance, engagement and quality in Ask YouTube’s ranking, similar to its standard search algorithm, the company stated.

Google, YouTube’s parent company, plans to introduce “agentic video understanding” to the watch-page version of Ask YouTube in the coming months.

Source: Search Engine Journal