Bitmovin has published the latest edition of its annual Video Developer Report.
The report tracks how the video industry builds and delivers streaming, drawing on insights from professionals across broadcast, OTT, and beyond.
The 2026/2027 edition found that AI has stopped being an add-on feature and is now deployed across the entire stack, often with agents operating the workflow.
Of the 486 respondents, 98 per cent said they are using AI or ML for video, with nearly half (46 per cent) employing AI tools every day. Just 2 per cent of respondents said they had no plans for AI at all.
Audio transcription, translation and foreign dubbing are the most common applications cited by respondents (48 per cent), followed by content recommendations (34 per cent), visual quality and optimisation (30 per cent). Tagging and categorisation, personalisation, and scene, shot boundary and ad placement opportunity detection all come in joint fourth place (28 per cent).
Elsewhere, in the past year, low latency for live streaming has overtaken controlling costs and is now the number one concern for 36 per cent of respondents, making it the top challenge facing video teams today. This is followed by controlling costs at 35 per cent and maintaining consistent monitoring and analytics at 28 per cent. Finding the root cause of streaming issues and ad insertion are also major challenges for video providers today (both at 27 per cent).
The report also highlights how expectations around low latency have shifted over time as the cost and complexity of delivering low latency has changed. Sub-second latency still matters in certain use cases such as live sports, betting, auctions and interactive formats, which Bitmovin said is driving the need for more efficient video delivery, such as Media over QUIC (MoQ). The report highlights that 28 per cent of respondents plan to use MoQ in the next 12 months.
Stefan Lederer, CEO and co-founder of Bitmovin, commented: “It’s clear that AI is running the video stack, advertising is the primary revenue engine, QoE and observability have become foundational layers, and the business case for MoQ has never been stronger. But what really stands out this year, is just how fast the technology is developing—the last 3 months alone have reshaped what is possible for video developers to build and achieve.”
