Who Watches AI Videos? Our Survey Says the Algorithm Decides

key takeaways

• People are watching AI videos, even when they don't intentionally seek them out.
• 50% of respondents watched 1–5 AI videos in the previous seven days, while 19.4% watched none.
• Algorithm recommendations were the biggest reason people watched AI videos, cited by 45.2% of respondents.

Remember when an AI-generated video of Will Smith eating spaghetti went viral a few years back? Many people mocked how bad and unrealistic it looked.

Fast-forward to 2026, and AI video has come a very long way. Some AI-generated videos are now realistic enough to fool people into thinking they're real. People are also increasingly experimenting with the technology, and some have become full-time AI content creators, posting AI-generated content across their social media platforms. Heck, there are even fully AI-generated movies, complete with AI actors and everything else.

Which raises the question: are people willing to watch content that is entirely artificial, made without humans in it? To find out, Techloy surveyed more than 60 respondents to learn how many people watch AI videos and to better understand their viewing habits. We found that people do watch AI videos, but watching them intentionally is a different matter.

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Most viewers see 1 to 5 AI videos a week

According to our data, 50% of respondents said they watched about 1 to 5 AI videos in the last seven days. Meanwhile, 19.4% said they hadn't watched any, while the remaining 30.6% said they watched 6 or more AI videos over the same period.

On intent, 32.3% of respondents said they rarely watched AI videos intentionally, while 30.6% said they sometimes did. Another 19.4% said they never watch AI videos intentionally, and the remaining 17.7% said they watch them often or every day.

At face value, it seems contradictory that more than 80% of respondents watched at least one AI video in the last week while many also said they rarely watch them intentionally.

But there's more to consider here. There are now huge numbers of AI videos being produced and distributed across social media. In fact, recent research from Kapwing suggests AI-generated videos make up a significant share of what new users encounter on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.

Techloy also spoke to the report's author, Liam Curtis, Kapwing's growth and SEO content manager. He told us, “I think a lot of it is driven by recommendations.”

For its research, Kapwing created a brand-new account and monitored the videos served to it. Curtis explained that the experiment wasn't based on the account's interests or preferences. Instead, the platform itself served the AI videos.

Kapwing's June 2026 research found that 59% of the first 500 videos served to a new TikTok account were AI slop, which Kapwing defines as low-quality AI-generated content made to farm views and attention. An earlier, similar experiment on YouTube Shorts found that 21% of the first 500 videos were AI slop.

So, it makes sense that people could be watching AI videos across different social platforms because of recommendation algorithms, despite being unlikely to seek them out intentionally.

Our data points the same way: 45.2% of respondents said they watch AI videos because an algorithm recommends them. This makes sense because AI videos can be produced at scale, giving platforms a large pool of content to recommend. If algorithms are optimised around signals such as watch time and engagement, it's plausible that people will encounter more AI-generated videos simply because they are being pushed into their feeds.

Respondents could choose more than one reason, and other common ones included entertainment (38.7%), curiosity (37.1%), and storytelling (24.2%).

This doesn't change the fact that about half of respondents found AI videos less engaging than videos made by humans. The rest found them either about as engaging or more engaging.

There's another caveat, too. Just because people aren't intentionally watching AI videos doesn't mean they aren't intrigued by them or won't continue watching once one appears in their feed.

Our data seems to support this. About 37.1% of respondents said they sometimes watch AI videos for longer than they initially intended.

TikTok is where most people watch AI videos

With algorithms being the top reason people watch AI videos, it's perhaps unsurprising that TikTok ranked as the most popular platform for consuming them among respondents, at 48.4%.