In June 2025, AI moved straight into video production: Meta edits clips from prompts, TikTok animates photos, and YouTube uses Gemini to find the moments when viewers are paying most attention. LinkedIn brought new video formats for B2B. Below are the month’s updates, platform by platform, each with an example of how to use it.
01Facebook
Meta puts AI video editing in everyone’s hands
Meta has launched a generative AI video editor, built into the Meta AI app, the Meta.AI website and the Edits app. Users pick from preset prompts that change how a clip looks: outfits, backgrounds, lighting and a range of artistic styles.
So you could take an ordinary video shot on your phone and, with a single command, turn it into something out of a graphic novel or a scene that feels like a video game.
- Example
- One launch video can become several style variations (futuristic for a younger audience, vintage for long-time fans), then be tested on Facebook and Instagram without a big design team.
- Impact
- Good video content gets cheaper and faster to make. Brands that learn these tools first can test more variations than their competitors.
Meta sues “nudify” apps
In June Meta announced a crackdown on “nudify” apps, which use AI to create fake nude images from ordinary photos. It has sued the company behind CrushAI, the tool behind apps of this kind, and is taking technical steps to block them on its platforms.
- Example
- For brands working with ambassadors and influencers, it lowers the risk of doctored images of those people going viral.
- Impact
- A safer online space means users trust it more, which makes a better setting for ads.
02Instagram
Quiet posts and rearranged profiles
A few months before Instagram turned 15, in October 2025, Adam Mosseri’s team announced features designed to take the pressure off posting and encourage creativity:
- Quiet posting. Instagram is exploring a way to post to your profile without the post landing in all your followers’ feeds.
- A rearranged grid. The long-awaited option to reorder the posts on your profile however you like.
- Trial Reels for everyone. You can test a Reel on people who don’t follow you first.
- A Rosalía font and Spotify in Notes. A font based on the artist’s handwriting, for Stories and Reels, and whatever you are listening to on Spotify, right in your notes.
- The Drafts programme. Funding, connections and collaborations for emerging creators and artists.
- Example
- Quiet posting lets you test a new style or message without bothering every follower, and a rearranged grid keeps key products or the seasonal campaign at the top.
- Impact
- Brands and creators can experiment more without spoiling their feed, and the profile can work as a shop window for new visitors.
03TikTok
AI Alive: photos that come to life in Stories
TikTok has launched AI Alive, a feature that turns still photos into short videos right inside TikTok Stories. Anyone can animate a picture with movement, a sky that shifts colour or background sound, no editing skills required.
- Example
- A product photo becomes an animated Story in minutes, for example a sunset over a resort, with moving waves and colours.
- Impact
- Animated clips become much easier to make, so brands can post eye-catching Stories more often.
TikTok and SoundCloud: viral tracks, saved instantly
TikTok has added SoundCloud to “Add to Music”, its music discovery feature. Users can save tracks they find on TikTok straight to SoundCloud with one tap, without leaving the app.
- Example
- A record label can launch a TikTok challenge around a new song, and listeners save it straight to SoundCloud, turning views into streams.
- Impact
- TikTok becomes even more the place where music is discovered, and the step from watching to listening shrinks to a single button.
Subscribe to the newsletter.
Like how we think? Get an article like this one twice a month.
04YouTube
Brandcast 2025: TV-style ads and cultural sponsorships
YouTube turned 20 in mid-May and used its Brandcast event to unveil a batch of new tools for advertisers, pitching itself as the new television of the digital age:
- Cultural Moments Sponsorships. Premium packages that put brands at the heart of major cultural events, from sports championships to award shows, with exclusive visibility around those moments.
- Peak Points. A product built with Gemini that automatically finds the most gripping moments in popular videos, when viewers are most engaged, and places ads right there.
- TV Masthead and Shoppable CTV. The new Masthead takes over the whole screen on the YouTube homepage on smart TVs, and Shoppable CTV lets viewers browse products and offers with the remote.
- Example
- A smartphone launch could sponsor a festival live stream, use Peak Points to place spots just before the most anticipated chorus, and let Shoppable CTV take viewers from the TV straight to pre-order.
- Impact
- YouTube wants to be TV and shop at the same time: awareness on the big screen, plus an instant call to action from the living room.
Less intrusive mid-roll ads
In May, YouTube changed how it places ads during videos (mid-roll). The system is better at picking natural pauses, so it’s less likely to cut someone off mid-sentence or in the middle of a key scene.
Creators also get more visibility: YouTube Studio shows which ad slots are likely to be used, so they can adjust their placements.
- Example
- A 15-second ad in a creator’s videos runs at a natural break, not mid-sentence, so it’s more likely to be watched. Brand and creator can agree the break points together.
- Impact
- Less annoying ads get watched to the end more often, which helps advertisers and creators alike.
05LinkedIn
Leaders embrace AI on LinkedIn
The figures come from LinkedIn’s Data & Insights report of 29 April 2025. The skills include prompt engineering and generative AI tools, and leaders are 1.2 times more likely than the rest of the workforce to list “AI literacy” skills. AI is becoming a core boardroom skill, and so a content topic on LinkedIn.
- Example
- Articles about how your company uses AI bring visibility and credibility on LinkedIn. Internally, the team can take the free AI for Leaders courses from LinkedIn and Microsoft.
- Impact
- AI-angled messages land with a corporate audience, but competition on the subject is growing, so concrete case studies win, not buzzwords.
B2B ads with vertical video and the top spot in the feed
In June LinkedIn launched ad formats and partnerships to help brands stand out in a crowded feed:
- First Impression Ads. Full-screen vertical video for single-day campaigns: the brand that buys the slot gets the first ad a member sees that day.
- Reserved Ads. The first ad slot in the feed beyond launch day, with single-image ads, Document Ads or Thought Leader Ads.
- CTV Ads. Video ads on Connected TV, open to all customers for audiences in the US and Canada, with extra reach through Paramount and integrations with Innovid and Sprinklr.
- Adobe Express. Video ads are built from professional templates in Adobe Express and exported straight to LinkedIn Ads.
- Example
- For a B2B software launch, First Impression Ads puts a vertical video first in the feed on launch day, and Reserved Ads then keeps the brand’s articles and case studies at the top of the feed.
- Impact
- LinkedIn is becoming a B2B media channel: a brand can own its audience’s first impression in the feed, every day.
06What it means for brands
Video production is getting cheaper: one clip can become several variations in minutes, and the platforms are getting better at choosing when an ad appears. Access to the tools no longer sets you apart; the idea and concrete examples do. Brands want to see what works for their product, not AI buzzwords.



