The most frustrating part of making Shorts is often not the lack of footage.
It’s having your phone loaded with:
12 video clips.
5 photos.
Multiple angles.
And a bunch of “Should I keep this clip or not?” moments.
The biggest hurdle usually is:
an empty timeline.
YouTube Create now offers a very straightforward feature:
AI Editing.
It doesn’t ask you to type a single prompt
to magically generate an entire video.
Instead, it takes your existing footage
and first creates a:
first draft.
For those making Shorts, Reels, or short-form videos every day,
this kind of AI may be more practical than fully AI-generated videos.
Taiwan Now Included in AI Editing Supported Regions
YouTube’s official list for Edit with AI support currently includes:
Taiwan
along with other countries and regions such as:
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, several Asian markets excluding Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States.
However, the company also clarifies that:
these AI features remain experimental
and may only be available to select creators.
So, just because Taiwan is on the support list,
doesn’t mean every account will immediately see identical features upon opening the app.
Best Use Case Is Not Starting from Scratch
Imagine you filmed a Shorts about a coffee shop with footage including:
the storefront, brewing coffee, latte art, pastries, customers sitting, ambiance, and the finished product.
The real challenge is deciding:
which clip should start the video?
which shots are too long?
how to time the music?
when to start captions?
YouTube Create’s AI Editing handles:
assembling your raw materials into a first draft.
You Can Select Up to 25 Clips or Photos at Once
The current official workflow is:
Open YouTube Create → Create Shorts → select videos or photos with a maximum of 25 items.
This means you don’t have to manually trim 25 clean clips beforehand in your photo gallery.
You can submit all potentially useful clips,
and AI will help organize them.
But Don’t Think More Than 25 Is Always Better
Although up to 25 clips can be loaded,
that doesn’t mean you should always fill the entire quota.
If you’re making a 20-second product video,
you might only need 6 to 8 clips.
Uploading 17 nearly identical angles of the same product will only make AI guess which ones are important.
The best approach remains:
doing a rough pre-selection to remove:
blurred
obviously repeated
clips with fingers blocking the lens,
or any footage you won’t use.
AI is responsible for the first cut,
not managing your entire gallery.
You’ll Receive a Draft First
YouTube positions Edit with AI as a tool
to organize raw footage into a:
polished first draft.
This draft can include:
music, effects, voiceover, and captions.
The realistic expectation isn’t “one click, fully finished video,”
but rather turning a timeline at 0%
into something 60–80% ready for further editing.
This is a significant difference.
The Greatest Time-Saver Is the First Cut
The hardest part of editing isn’t trimming a clip from 3.4 seconds to 2.8 seconds;
it’s choosing which clip to use first,
which follows,
which clips to discard, and
how long the final video should be.
This is the first cut.
If AI can arrange your clips,
add basic pacing, music, and captions,
creators don’t have to start from a completely blank timeline.
You Can Still Edit After Receiving the Draft
This is crucial.
The AI draft isn’t locked in place.
The official workflow lets you:
preview, adjust music volume, edit voiceover,
go back into timeline editing,
and manually tweak.
YouTube Create’s goal isn’t
AI replacing editing,
but rather
AI providing an editing starting point.
This approach aligns more with real creative workflows.
How to Use It in a Simple Way
Suppose you filmed a 30-second Short with clips of unboxing, product close-ups, usage, before-and-after, reactions, and a final product shot.
You can feed these clips into AI Editing to generate a first draft.
Then focus on these three tasks:
1. Check the First Second
Ask: Does the opening shot grab attention?
If AI starts with the product logo, walking into a room slowly, or an empty background, even a nicely edited video may not suit Shorts.
That judgment still needs a human touch.
2. Remove Repeated Shots
AI may think two angles are equally good, but for a 30-second short, you might only need one.
If the same action happens twice in a row, viewers can feel the video isn’t progressing.
So ask: Does each clip advance the story?
If not, delete it.
3. Evaluate if the Music Supports the Story
YouTube Create lets you add music, but music should do more than just be there.
For example, do the product reveal, before/after change, reaction, or call-to-action shots hit on the beat?
AI can help select music, but whether the rhythm matches still needs a creator’s intuition.
Current Shorts Length Options
AI Editing currently supports:
under 15 seconds, 15–30 seconds, and 31–60 seconds.
This encourages you to decide upfront how much story you want to tell instead of dumping all footage and hoping AI figures it out.
Knowing whether it’s going to be 20, 30, or 60 seconds lets AI act as an editing assistant, not a content strategist.
Raw Footage Can Be Longer
YouTube makes a distinction between the final Shorts length
and the length of your original clips.
Clips you submit can be as short as 5 seconds or as long as 5 minutes.
You don’t have to pre-cut a two-minute interview into many clips;
you can feed longer footage in, then let AI help organize a draft.
After Editing, You Can Publish or Download
YouTube Create allows you to:
directly publish to YouTube,
or download the video.
This is especially useful if you manage content across platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok.
Editing tools don’t have to be locked to the publishing platform.
For multi-platform versions, downloading first to adjust captions, CTAs, safe areas, and length per platform is sensible.
Important: Chinese AI Voiceover Is Not Yet Supported
This is a common misconception.
Although Taiwan is on the AI Editing access list, the current first supported voiceover languages are:
Bengali, English, North Indian languages, and Portuguese.
Chinese isn’t included.
So “Taiwan can use AI Editing”
does not translate to
“all AI voiceover features fully support Chinese.”
They are two separate matters.
Keep Captions and Voiceover Separate
Captions handle on-screen text.
Voiceover is audio.
Therefore, you can have captions in Chinese
without automatic Chinese AI voiceover available.
If your video has a real person speaking Chinese or your own recorded audio, AI Editing is still valuable.
Just don’t expect all voice features are fully localized.
YouTube Create Is More Than AI Editing
YouTube Create is YouTube’s own video editing app,
able to work with:
Shorts, long videos, music, captions, voiceover, timeline editing, and exporting.
YouTube positions it as a free, ad-free editing tool.
AI Editing isn’t a separate app,
but a feature integrated into the editing workflow.
This avoids the need for switching platforms — unlike generating AI clips on a separate site then importing.
What About Yesterday’s Gemini Conversational Editing Announcement?
It’s important to clarify.
On September 23, Made on YouTube announced the next stage:
Conversational Editing Assistant.
YouTube plans to integrate Gemini with Shorts and YouTube Create.
You’ll get a draft, then use chat commands like:
“Cut out the silent parts at the start,”
“Rearrange these clips,”
“Speed up the pace,”
“Sync music to the beat,”
and AI will update accordingly.
You can always revert to manual timeline adjustments.
But This Feature Isn’t Fully Launched Yet
YouTube currently plans a global rollout on Android and iPhone starting in:
early 2027.
So if you don’t see Gemini chat editor today, it’s normal.
The only currently available AI feature to try is:
Edit with AI.
Conversational Editing will be layered on top next year.
The Key Difference Between These Two
Now, with Edit with AI:
You upload footage → AI creates draft → You edit manually.
In the future, with Conversational Editing:
You upload footage → AI creates draft → You tell Gemini what to change → Gemini updates → You optionally tweak manually.
Currently it’s AI first draft;
next step will be AI first draft plus AI iterative editing.
This Reflects Real Creative Workflows Better Than “One-Click Final Video”
Creative work is rarely done perfectly the first time.
Videos go through:
Draft 1 → Not right → Cut this → Change intro → Move music → Shorten captions → Review again.
If AI only provided a complete result once,
it would be hard to fit into professional workflows.
If instead AI can keep good parts and only adjust requested sections,
it becomes much more useful.
Upcoming Features Will Include Video A/B Testing
YouTube Studio is also preparing to let creators do A/B testing with up to three different video cuts.
This adds a new dimension beyond thumbnail A/B testing.
YouTube wants to test the video content itself.
For example:
Version A: product shown first.
Version B: problem introduced first.
Version C: reaction first.
Rather than AI deciding the best,
actual audience retention data will guide creators.
This Is the Most Promising Direction for AI Editing
AI doesn’t need to guess the “best version” in one shot.
Instead, AI can speed up producing multiple versions.
Previously, making three versions could take an extra hour.
If AI quickly generates different intros, lengths, and pacing,
the workflow becomes:
AI creates options → Audience data guides → Creator chooses final.
Don’t Treat AI Drafts as Final
Especially for:
commercial ads, brand videos, tutorials, or client content,
you should verify:
context accuracy, cuts within sentences, captions matching meaning, music not overpowering voice, before/after order, and presence of CTAs.
AI’s goal is to build a:
reasonable draft,
not a guarantee of flawless brand judgment.
For Your First Trial, Use Just One Video
Don’t attempt to overhaul your entire channel workflow on day one.
The best way to start:
Choose a 20–30 second Short
with 6–10 clips you might actually use.
Generate the AI first draft, then keep track of three things:
1.
How long did it take from clip selection to first draft?
2.
How many AI-selected clips do you retain in the final?
3.
How long did manual editing take afterwards?
The real metric isn’t if AI generated something,
but whether it got you faster to a publishable version.
Example: Original Workflow Took 30 Minutes
Searching clips: 10 minutes.
Initial editing: 10 minutes.
Captions & music: 5 minutes.
Revisions: 5 minutes.
Total: 30 minutes.
Using AI Editing:
Clip selection: 5 minutes.
AI draft: automatic.
Manual adjustments: 10 minutes.
Total: 15 minutes.
This demonstrates workflow efficiency.
If the AI draft is chaotic and you spend 25 minutes re-editing,
AI did not improve efficiency despite automation.
The Most Practical Positioning for Shorts Creators
Don’t expect YouTube Create AI Editing to be an:
AI director.
Think of it as a:
first cut assistant.
It solves:
too many clips, not knowing how to start, and avoiding manual timeline organization.
The hook, story, emotion, branding, and CTA are still up to creators to decide.
Remember the Difference Between Now and the Future
Taiwan now has access to:
YouTube Create Edit with AI allowing up to 25 clips, generating a first draft, then manual editing.
The next step, Gemini Conversational Editing, will begin global rollout in early 2027.
The best bet today isn’t waiting for AI to fully edit for you next year,
but seeing how much of the first cut workload can already be done without starting from zero.
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