Software avoided creator video for years, betting that trust-based sales needed polished, corporate production. AI-generated content is changing that.
The number of software companies using creator video, or user-generated content (UGC), has nearly quadrupled since 2023, according to Billo, a creator marketing platform.
Most of that growth has happened in the past 12 months, with a roughly 55% year-on-year increase. Behind the shift, Billo points to a flood of AI-generated content across social platforms, along with a change in how software marketers measure what creator video actually delivers.
“Software brands expected creator video to convert instantly, the way a direct-to-consumer ad does,” said Donatas Smailys, co-founder and CEO of Billo.
“Nobody buys software the moment they see a video. Someone watches it, starts a free trial, and someone else signs off on the purchase weeks later. The companies moving fastest right now are the ones who understand the value of authentic content in the age of AI and know how to measure it properly.”
Why AI Content Is Driving the Shift
The change is happening as platforms introduce measures to identify AI-generated content.
For example, LinkedIn rolled out a “seems like AI slop” flagging button in July, and the company says flagged posts are now getting fewer views. TikTok says it has labelled more than 3 billion videos as AI-generated so far this year, up from 1.3 billion just eight months earlier.
“The timing isn’t a coincidence,” Smailys added.
“There’s a lot more AI-generated video in people’s feeds now, and it’s changed what looks trustworthy. A slick, corporate-style video used to signal there was a real company behind it. Now it could just as easily have been generated in five minutes. A person talking straight to camera is a much stronger signal today. This is the category that held off from creator video the longest, and it’s now among the fastest to adopt it.”
The shift towards real presenters matters more in software than it does for many other products, since a purchase usually needs sign-off from more than one person.
A single video has to earn trust with everyone involved in that decision, not just whoever hits play first. A polished studio production may increasingly struggle to do that on its own.
What This Means for Software Marketers
For software and B2B marketers, this trend comes down to three practical changes:
- Measure success by trials and signups, not clicks.
- Give campaigns more time to convert. A single video can generate new signups for weeks, so marketers should look beyond typical direct-to-consumer benchmarks.
- Consider real, unscripted presenters. Creator-led video can offer a more personal way to build trust with viewers than polished studio production.
The shift in how software brands measure and present creator video is still recent. Billo expects the trend to continue as more industries move away from polished, corporate-style video.
The convergence of tech and brands 