Think ads are bad now? Netflix and YouTube just revealed AI-powered commercials that could make cheap tiers unbearable
- Netflix has announced that AI-generated mid-roll ads are coming in 2026
- YouTube this week also revealed its new Gemini-powered ad tech
- Both have also tested ‘pause ads’ that appear when you pause a video
It already felt like the golden age of streaming was well behind us, but Netflix and YouTube have just confirmed it with new kinds of AI-powered ads that will seriously test your patience in the near future.
Netflix was the first to talk glowingly about its ad tech this week – during its Upfront showcase, the streaming giant said it will be launching AI-generated, interactive mid-roll ads, alongside pause ads, in 2026.
What does ‘AI-generated’ mean? Unfortunately, it’s as bad as you feared. Netflix explained during Upfront that these new types of ads will use “generative AI to instantly marry advertisers’ ads with the worlds of our shows”.
In other words, mid-roll ads will soon harmoniously blend in with the show you’re watching, bathing your eyeballs with subtle messaging.
Netflix is supremely confident that its ad-supported tier subscribers will stomach these new commercials because, according to Amy Reinhard (its President of advertising), “members pay as much attention to mid-roll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves”. Perhaps subscribers hurling remotes at their TV also counts toward ‘engagement’.
Unfortunately, turning up the ad dial makes sense for Netflix’s bottom line – its ad-supported tier recently hit 94 million monthly users, which is more than twice the number from the same time last year. And Netflix is far from the only streaming service dabbling with the dark arts of new, AI-powered ad techniques.
The decisive moment
During its Brandcast event this week (via 9to5Google), YouTube also revealed an ad technique with a different twist – one that uses Gemini to work out how to place ads in the most important parts of the video you’re watching.
YouTube calls this ‘Peak Points’, because it uses AI to work out the most meaningful, or “peak”, moments to yank you away from an important moment and dunk your head into an ad message.
In the example that YouTube shared, the ad was actually served just after the ‘targeted moment’ (a marriage proposal) rather than during it, but it still looks like a pretty cynical way to hit you with advertising right when your emotional guard is down.
YouTube didn’t say exactly when this new ‘feature’ will be rolling out. But it seems likely to arrive before Netflix’s interactive mid-rolls and pause ads. Talking of pause ads, that’s another trick that YouTube has already tested in its bid to break your resolve and push you to YouTube Premium (or, in many cases, uBlock Origin).
Analysis: The streaming giants remove their masks
There was an age when Netflix was the scrappy, ad-free upstart that we all flocked to from cable and its endless commercials, but those days are long gone.
In fact, if you’re already tiring of insidious ad creep, there were some chilling remarks from Amy Reinhard (Netflix’s President of advertising) at Upfront. “If you take away anything from today, I hope it’s this: the foundation of our ads business is in place,” she said during Upfront. “And going forward, the pace of progress is going to be even faster”.
Pass me some smart glasses with AI-powered ad blockers, then, because this doesn’t sound like a fun ride. I have no issue with ads at all – it’d be hypocritical to say otherwise, writing for a website that’s partly supported by them – but making them a central part of a paid service seems a bit greedy, and I worry about the melding of AI-powered ads with entertainment.
As TechRadar contributor Carrie Marshall also recently argued, Prime Video’s ‘Shop the Show’ feature – which lets you instantly buy products featured in its shows – represents a troubling trend that’s only going to get worse as we head into 2026. Prime Video is, like Netflix, very much an ad company in disguise.
With AI unlocking new opportunities, the temptation to saturate shows with marketing opportunities is going to be stronger than ever, and we may increasingly feel like Truman Burbank in The Truman Show, wondering why we have the sudden urge to go and buy a Chef’s Pal. I just hope escaping these next-gen ads doesn’t exclusively become the preserve of the wealthy who can afford to shell out for 14 different ad-free monthly subscriptions.
