Software companies' creator video use jumped 55% this year, and AI is already citing it in shopping answers

Software companies' use of creator video jumped 55% over the past year and has nearly quadrupled since 2023, according to data from creator marketing platform Billo, as B2B marketing teams turn to face-to-camera product reviews to stand out in a feed filling up with AI-generated clips, and to earn a mention when a buyer asks an AI tool which product to pick.

Two trade publications reported the Billo figures this week: Advanced Television on September 22, and MarTech (a Semrush publication, disclosed here) on September 24, which tied the growth to a separate study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau on how AI tools use creator content to build shopping recommendations.

Feeds are filling up with AI-made video

Billo's explanation for the jump starts with what else is showing up in the same feeds. Per the Advanced Television report, TikTok labeled more than 3 billion videos as AI-generated in 2026, up from 1.3 billion eight months earlier. That volume is changing what reads as credible to a viewer scrolling past a product clip.

Billo co-founder and CEO Donatas Smailys told Advanced Television the timing isn't a coincidence: the flood of AI-generated video in people's feeds has shifted what registers as trustworthy, and an unpolished, direct-to-camera clip now reads as more credible than it did a year or two ago.

Smailys also pointed to a mismatch in how software marketers judged the format early on. Brands treated creator video like a direct-response ad and expected it to close deals on first contact, the way a retail ad might. Software doesn't sell that way.

"Software brands expected creator video to convert instantly, the way a direct-to-consumer ad does. Nobody buys software the moment they see a video."

Neither report disclosed Billo's sample size or survey method, so the 55% and "nearly quadrupled" figures should be read as one vendor's read of its own market, not an independently audited census of B2B video spend. Two separate outlets reporting the same numbers from Billo is corroboration that the figures exist and are being circulated in the trade; it isn't the same as a third party replicating the underlying count.

AI research tools are already citing creators

The IAB study MarTech cited, titled "The Creator Signal," gives the more rigorous half of this story. IAB fielded it in May 2026 through the research platform Attest, surveying 2,200 consumers who had used an AI tool for shopping research in the prior three months: 1,000 in the US and 300 each in the UK, Australia, Mexico and India. IAB published the findings on September 9.

Two numbers matter most for a software marketer. First, 56% of respondents said they prefer an AI shopping recommendation that incorporates a creator or influencer perspective. Second, 65% said they're more confident in an AI recommendation specifically when it's informed by a credible creator review. That confidence effect is strongest with younger buyers: 65% of Gen Z and millennial respondents wanted creator-informed AI answers, against 53% of Gen X and 34% of Boomers.

IAB's SVP of research and insights, Jack Koch, framed the finding as a distribution opportunity rather than a threat to brand content, saying trusted creator perspectives can lift confidence in AI recommendations. IAB CEO David Cohen put it more directly:

"Creator perspectives can help strengthen confidence in AI-generated recommendations by bringing credible human voices into the experience."

Expertise beats reach

The same IAB data undercuts the instinct to chase the creator with the biggest following. Asked what makes a creator's opinion trustworthy enough to shape an AI answer, respondents ranked a proven track record first at 46%, consistency second at 40%, and demonstrated expertise or product experience third at 36%. A large audience or follower count came in last, at 21%. For a software category where the buyer is often a practitioner checking a claim against their own experience, that ordering should change who marketing teams brief.

What to do differently

Put together, the two reports describe a single shift: creator video is no longer just a top-of-funnel awareness format, it's becoming part of the evidence layer that both human buyers and AI research tools draw on before a purchase.

• Brief creators on their track record and hands-on product experience, not their follower count.
• Build comparison and implementation-focused videos, not just launch hype, since that's the content AI tools and researching buyers both pull from.
• Stop grading creator video on views or clicks alone; track trials, signups and pipeline the way MarTech's piece recommends, since a software purchase rarely closes off a single view.