The State of Video Is Strong. The State of Measuring It Is Not.

Estimated Read Time: 4–5 minutes

Key Takeaways

• Wistia's 2026 State of Video report confirms what most video marketers already feel: demand is up, budgets are flat, and AI is accelerating production everywhere.
• Teams are measuring AI's impact on production. Almost none are measuring which creative decisions actually drive results.
• More video without better measurement doesn't compound. It just creates more noise.
• We're going a level deeper. Our Pulse survey is diving into how teams are actually making creative decisions in their workflows, and we want to hear from you.

A Report We Look Forward to Every Year

Wistia's State of Video report is one of the most useful annual reads in video marketing. It surveys nearly 1,000 professionals, analyzes over 13 million videos, and captures where the industry actually is, not where vendors say it's going.

This year's findings are worth paying attention to.

Video demand is up across the board. Total plays hit 2.52 billion in 2025, growing 6-7% year over year. Teams are making more video, across more formats, distributed across more channels than ever before. LinkedIn has emerged as B2B's top video sharing channel, beating out YouTube. Social media is now where 83% of companies share their videos first.

But fewer teams are increasing their budgets to match. Video budgets are flat or down for 51% of companies this year. Almost half expect to keep spending exactly what they spent last year.

The result is a familiar tension. More video. Same resources. Higher expectations.

AI Is Changing Production. It Has Not Changed Understanding.

Wistia's report on AI video marketing trends fills in the picture. 52% of teams are increasing their AI investment this year. AI users are twice as likely to produce over 100 videos per year. Teams are using AI for scripting, pre-production, editing, captions, and distribution. Nearly every generative AI feature tracked has grown in adoption since last year.

51% of primary AI use is in pre-production. Planning. Scripting. Idea generation. The creation side of the workflow.

Teams are also tracking whether AI is paying off, just not at the level that actually matters. When asked how they measure the ROI of AI tools in video production, the top answers are time saved (35%), higher viewer engagement (33%), and the ability to produce more versions with the same resources (30%). Increased volume, lead generation, and reduced outsourcing costs round out the list.

Every one of those is a production or reach metric. None of them says which hook held attention, which scene drove the click, or which creative choice is worth repeating. Teams are measuring whether AI helped them make more. Almost nobody is measuring which of what they made actually worked.

That gap is not closing. According to the Gain Theory Global CMO Survey, 62% of marketing leaders admit they are investing media budgets behind creative assets without knowing their full business value. 80% assess creative performance using media metrics like reach and impressions rather than measures that show whether advertising actually drives sales.

More production. Same blind spots.

What the Report Confirms, and What the Smartest Marketers Are Focusing On

The Wistia report is excellent at capturing what teams are doing. It shows which formats are winning, which channels are growing, how production workflows are evolving, and where AI is showing up in the process.

What it points toward, but doesn't measure, is what is happening inside the creative itself.

Which hook is holding attention. Which scene is driving the click. Which thirty seconds of a sixty-second ad is doing all the work. Which creative decisions are worth scaling and which ones are quietly draining budget.

The smartest marketing teams right now are not just asking how to make more video. They are asking how to understand what they are already making, and using that understanding to make every decision sharper.

That is exactly what Creative Intelligence by AdPipe is built for. It reads what is actually on screen, layers your performance data on top, and gives you the specific answers your team can act on before the next campaign launches.

We Are Going a Level Deeper

The Wistia reports capture the state of video broadly. We want to understand the state of creative decision-making specifically.

How are marketing and creative teams actually using data to make creative decisions? What does the brief look like when it is built on evidence versus instinct? How are teams connecting what is on screen to what is driving results?

These are the questions our Pulse survey is designed to answer. Not benchmarks. Real workflows. Real decisions. Real gaps.

If you work in marketing or creative, we want to hear from you. It takes five minutes and the findings will be worth your time.

Help us map where the industry actually is on creative intelligence.
Take the survey and be part of the conversation. Take the Pulse survey →