Instagram adds AI assistant to Edits for personalized creator feedback

Edits is Meta’s standalone video editing app, launched last year as a rival to TikTok’s CapCut. The new assistant is a conversational chatbot that draws on account metrics including follows, views, video retention, likes and shares, and combines them with comments, trending content on Instagram and what a creator’s audience is interested in, said Brett Westervelt, who leads the Edits app. In a blog post, Westervelt wrote that the assistant “can spot patterns in your performance over time and surface actionable insights that are hard to see from the metrics alone.” He added that Edits worked closely with a group of creators and heard consistently that creators want a tool that handles analysis, not one that does creative work for them.

Creators can ask the assistant open-ended questions about what is trending on Instagram, why one video performed better than another, or what content resonated most with their audience, according to The Verge. They can also request content ideas, guidance on hooks, captions, trending audio and how to script videos. Meta said the assistant can suggest video concepts, hooks and captions based on previous content performance and current trends, and recommend audio based on the style of content a creator makes.

Meta first previewed the Edits AI assistant in June at an invite-only creator event, where it also said it was working on an Edits desktop app. The feature has been trialed by select creators in Meta’s community. It will be free to use in the app until an unspecified daily prompt limit, after which creators can unlock more usage with a Meta One subscription, Engadget reported. The most expensive Meta One plan costs $499 per month, according to Engadget. The Verge reported that “power users” will be able to buy a Meta One subscription for more usage.

YouTube has also been moving in a similar direction. TechCrunch reported that YouTube announced last week it is working on a conversational video editing tool expected early next year. The Verge reported that YouTube recently announced updates to its AI-powered dashboard for creators, a tool it initially announced in 2025 that also has AI editing and A/B testing capabilities. Meta’s approach appears more analytics-driven than YouTube’s, which has suggested creators would use its AI to help with the actual editing process, according to TechCrunch.

The launch comes as platforms are giving creators more direct guidance on how to optimize content. The Verge noted that many platforms historically limited or hid detailed metrics about how a user’s own content was performing, and that CrowdTangle, a tool researchers and journalists used to monitor popular content on Meta platforms, was shut down or restricted. The Verge also raised questions about what happens when creators optimize content in similar ways and whether AI-driven feedback and analytics could eventually sit behind a paywall.

Reports differed slightly in describing the tool. TechCrunch called it a conversational AI video assistant in one report and an AI video editor in another headline, though both described a feedback-focused assistant rather than an automated editing tool. The Verge called it an AI creative assistant.