- Netflix announced that the mid-roll advertisements generated by AI-AI arrived in 2026
- YouTube This week also revealed its new advertising technology powered by Gemini
- The two also tested “pause advertisements” that appear when you arouse a video
It already seemed that the golden age of streaming was well behind us, but Netflix and YouTube have just confirmed it with new types of ads fueled by AI which will seriously test your patience in the near future.
Netflix was the first to speak in a fun way about its advertising technology this week – during its initial window, the streaming giant said it would launch interactive mid -roulets generated in AI, alongside break in break, in 2026.
What does “generated” mean? Unfortunately, it’s as bad as you feared. Netflix explained at the outset that these new types of ads will use “a generative AI to instantly marry advertiser ads with the worlds of our programs”.
In other words, mid-roll advertisements will soon blend harmoniously in the show you watch, bathed your eyeballs with subtle messaging.
Netflix is extremely convinced that its level subscribers financed by advertising will extend these new advertisements because, according to Amy Reinhard (its president of advertising), “members pay as much attention to mid-term advertisements as to emissions and films themselves”. Perhaps subscribers launching remote controls on their television also have “commitment”.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the advertising dial is logical for the netflix net profit – its level funded by advertising recently reached 94 million monthly users, which represents more than double the same time last year. And Netflix is far from the only streaming service that hides with the dark arts of new advertising techniques fueled by AI.
The decisive moment
During its Brandcast event this week (via 9TO5google), YouTube also revealed an ad technique with a different turn – the one that uses Gemini to determine how to place advertisements in the most important parts of the video you watch.
YouTube calls these “rush points” because it uses AI to determine the most significant or “peak” moments to move away from an important moment and dive your head into an ad message.
In the example that YouTube shared, the announcement was actually served just after the “targeted moment” (a marriage proposal) rather than during that, but it always looks like a fairly cynical way to hit you with advertising when your emotional guard is broken.
YouTube did not say exactly when this new “functionality” will be deployed. But it seems likely to arrive before the mid-wheels of Netflix and break. Speaking of advertisements on a break, this is another tip that YouTube has already tested in its attempt to break your resolution and push you on Premium Youtube (or, in many cases, of original Ublock).
Analysis: giants in streaming remove their masks
There was an age when Netflix was the disjointed and without advertising parliament that we all flocked from the cable and its endless advertisements, but these days have long disappeared.
In fact, if you are already tiring of the insidious flipper of the announcement, there have been frightening remarks of Amy Reinhard (President of Netflix advertising) at the front. “If you remove something today, I hope that is this: the foundation of our ad company is in place,” she said in advance. “And in the future, the pace of progress will be even faster”.
Sit me from smart glasses with advertising blockers fueled by AI, then, because it does not look like fun driving. I have no problem with advertisements – it would be hypocritical to say the opposite, to write for a website which is partly supported by them – but to make it a central part of a paid service seems a little greedy, and I worry about the merger of advertisements fueled by AI with entertainment.
As Carrie Marshall, a contributor to Techradar, pointed out, the “Shop the Show” of Prime Video – which allows you to instantly buy products presented in its programs – represents a disturbing trend that will only get worse while we are heading around 2026. Prime Video is, like Netflix, very an advertising administration company.
With the AI unlocking new opportunities, the temptation to saturate marketing opportunities will be stronger than ever, and we can more and more feel like Truman Burbank The Truman show, You wonder why we suddenly want to go and buy a chef boyfriend. I just hope that to escape these new generation advertisements will not exclusively become exclusively the reserve of the rich who can afford to pay 14 monthly subscriptions without advertising.
