The transformation is staggering and largely invisible to casual viewers. According to Kapwing’s latest analysis, AI-generated content now accounts for 60% of top-performing YouTube videos across key categories. What started as a trickle has become a flood—and it’s reshaping the economics of attention.
This isn’t about quality—it’s about economies of scale applied to content creation. When AI can produce passable content at near-zero marginal cost, the old creator economics collapse. Human creators competing on volume face an impossible arms race.
YouTube’s algorithm doesn’t distinguish between human and AI creativity—it optimizes for engagement. AI-generated content, refined through rapid iteration, increasingly hits the engagement marks that the algorithm rewards. This creates a feedback loop: more AI content gets promoted, training viewers to accept AI aesthetics as normal, which further validates AI production.
The implications extend beyond YouTube. This is a preview of what happens when platform business models meet unlimited content supply. Platforms designed for content scarcity face existential questions when content becomes abundant.
The Creator Response
For human creators, the strategic response isn’t to compete on volume—that battle is lost. The opportunity lies in what AI cannot yet replicate: authentic voice, genuine expertise, and trust built over time. The premium for “verified human” content may become the new differentiator.
We’re witnessing the first platform to cross the AI-majority threshold. It won’t be the last. The question for every content platform: what happens when your supply side becomes infinite?
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
