This week I made my first video, and it was harder than I expected.

Forty years in media, and I've stood behind a lot of cameras. Standing in front of one is different. It took a few takes to find my voice. The breakthrough came when I put the script away, kept four cue cards, stood up, and talked to the camera like I'd talk to a client across the table.

Why put myself through it? Because when I looked at where AI gets its answers, one source kept showing up near the top. It isn't Reddit or LinkedIn. It's YouTube.

Why YouTube matters now

In August 2026, YouTube was the most-cited platform across eight AI tools, ahead of Reddit, according to Meltwater data reported by Digiday. The list covers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews.

The growth is fast. A Tinuiti report using Profound data found YouTube's share of citations in Google AI Mode more than quadrupled between January and April 2026, and more than doubled in AI Overviews.

Three findings from an OtterlyAI study of more than 100 million AI citations matter most for small businesses:

  • Google and Perplexity do most of the citing. Perplexity accounted for 38.7% of YouTube citations and Google AI Overviews for 36.6%. ChatGPT was only 4.4%.
  • Popularity barely matters. Views, likes and subscriber counts had almost no link to how often a video was cited. 35% of cited channels had fewer than 10,000 subscribers.
  • AI cites long videos, not Shorts. 94% of citations went to long-form videos, and only 5.7% to Shorts. The sweet spot was 10 to 20 minutes.

That last point changed my plan. My first video was a 55-second Short. It's great for practice and for social media, but the videos AI quotes are explainers, walkthroughs and how-tos. So my Shorts will now point to longer videos that answer one question well.

One caution: a citation isn't always the source of the answer. Sometimes AI simply recommends the video as a link. Either way, your business shows up in the answer.

What makes a video easy for AI to cite

AI can't watch your video the way a person does. It reads the words around it and the words in it. Four things do most of the work:

  1. A title that is the question. "How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?" beats "AI tips, part 3."
  2. A real description. Write a plain-language summary, name the tools and places you mention, and add your links. In the OtterlyAI study, cited videos averaged 334 words of description. You don't need that many, but a single line won't do.
  3. Chapters. Add timestamps in the description, starting at 00:00, with at least three chapters of 10 seconds or more. 78% of cited videos with chapters were cited more than once, often for different chapters. So far, only Google's AI surfaces cite chapters directly.
  4. Correct captions. YouTube writes captions automatically, and AI reads them. Check them. On my first video, YouTube got both my name and my company's name wrong. If the transcript gets your name wrong, AI learns the wrong name.

One more thing helps: keep posting. Recent videos get a small boost for fast-changing topics like AI.

How to start this week

You don't need a studio. You need a phone and one good question.

  1. Pick the question customers ask you most. For a plumber, it might be "Why does my water heater keep tripping?" For a realtor, "What does it cost to sell my house?"
  2. Answer it in 5 to 10 minutes, the way you would across the counter. That's the version AI is most likely to cite.
  3. Cut a 60-second Short from it for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, and point it to the full video.

What I learned this week, so you can skip my learning curve:

  • Use cue cards, not a script. Four bullet points sound like you. A full script sounds like reading.
  • Stand up. Your voice and energy lift right away.
  • Put the phone close, at eye level. Your face should fill the top third of the frame.
  • Face the window. Light from the front is the most flattering light there is.
  • Soften the room. Bare walls and hard floors echo. A rug, curtains or a couch helps more than a microphone.

Tool I'm Using: Adobe Firefly and Enhance Speech

This is a new section. Each week I'll share one AI tool I actually used, and what it did for me.

This week it was two tools from Adobe.

Enhance Speech (in Adobe Podcast) cleaned up my audio. My room had an echo, and this made it sound closer to a studio. I used the free version, which handled my one-minute clip fine.

Firefly video generation made the 3-second opening shot of my video: hands pressing Enter on a keyboard as amber light rises off the keys. I described it in one sentence, picked the Veo 3.1 model inside Firefly, and set it to vertical. It used a small share of the generative credits that come with my Adobe plan.

What I'd tell a business owner:

  • Use AI for the extras, not for you. The cutaway and the cleaner sound helped. Your face and your voice are what build trust.
  • Leave faces out of AI clips. My best AI shot showed no person at all, so nothing could look fake.
  • Try one tool, one time. You don't need a production team to start.

What's next

I'm already working on the next one: a longer video that answers one question well, built with everything above. I'll share it here when it's ready. Start yours this week, and we'll get better together.

Sources