CapCut storms into the AI video track. Will LibTV and its peers face an imminent shockwave?

Over the past year and more, the rapid rise of AI video platforms has quietly rewritten the underlying logic of video production. The one-stop creation model continues to penetrate scenarios such as short dramas, comic dramas, and commercial advertisements, and the status of traditional editing software is being impacted.

For all editing tools, extending the capability boundary to the upstream and deeply integrating AI generation capabilities has changed from an optional function iteration to a proposition that must be responded to.

At the Douyin Creator Conference on September 20, Jianying launched the one-stop creation workspace Jianying Hub, which connects AI generation and editing links, and simultaneously upgraded the intelligent creation Agent Jianying Assistant, covering the full creation cycle with products such as ICG Studio. At the same time, ByteDance also opened up the product links of Jianying, Jimeng, and Xiaoya Que, promoting the precipitation of full-process creation data in its own system.

This is not an action unique to ByteDance. Platforms such as Kuaishou and Tencent are also building similar product layouts, and the competition logic of the entire track is changing: the competition of single-point tools is in the past, and opening up the full creation link and deploying the next-generation content form is becoming the common competition direction for all players.

01

Facing AI video platforms "overtaking from upstream"

Jianying starts to "counterattack" to the upstream

To understand the background of this intensive product update of Jianying, we must first see clearly the pattern changes of the AI video industry in the past year.

In the field of short dramas, in the first half of 2026, 221,900 new AI micro-short dramas were added on the Douyin platform alone, and the proportion of AI micro-short dramas launched in the whole industry in the first quarter has exceeded 95%. In the broader creation tool market, the scale of China's AI video creation platforms has reached 6.28 billion yuan in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 127%, of which commercial revenue for enterprises accounts for 68%.

Under the iteration of technology, the process of professional-level video production is changing. Before the popularization of AI generation technology, editing software was the core node for material aggregation and the key hub of the production process. Relying on the lightweight and easy-to-use product features, Jianying has occupied the main share of the mass and semi-professional creator market.

The emergence of full-process AI creation platforms has reconstructed this production rhythm upstream. Products represented by LibTV and Flova collectively adopt an integrated creation mode: starting from creative text input, AI automatically completes script disassembly, storyboard generation, and picture rendering, and then internalizes traditional editing links such as segment-level editing, rhythm adjustment, and soundtrack subtitles as built-in functions of the generation process.

Standardized production scenarios such as short dramas, comic dramas, and marketing videos can more and more complete full-cycle output on such generation platforms. Editing tools are no longer a necessary link in the production process, and more undertake the optional role of fine editing — if complex special effects, professional color grading and multi-track fine adjustment are not required, some creators no longer open Jianying.

This change did not happen suddenly, and Jianying has long promoted the layout of AI capabilities. Between 2023 and 2024, AI-assisted tools such as intelligent subtitles, AI matting, and intelligent color grading were launched one after another, whose main function is to reduce the technical threshold of individual editing operations; in late April 2026, Jianying AI Assistant was officially launched, starting to take over repetitive work such as batch editing through the Agent mode, and AI evolved from scattered functional tools to a conversational editing assistant.

However, these AI capabilities are all focused on improving the efficiency of the editing link, and do not break out of Jianying's positioning as a downstream editing tool, so the core problem of user diversion in the upstream has not been solved.

In addition to external competition, ByteDance's internal product pattern has also brought structural impacts. Jimeng focuses on AI image and video generation, and Xiaoya Que provides industrial content production capabilities. The two operate in parallel with Jianying, with independent user systems and workflows. These two products also follow the route of "generation as finished film", allowing users to complete the full process from materials to finished films on the platform, which also forms a substitution effect for the editing link within the ByteDance system.

The combination of internal and external factors gradually highlights the necessity for Jianying to extend to the upstream.

The core of the launch of Jianying Hub this time is to make up for the capability shortcomings of the upstream creation link: use the infinite canvas to carry script conception, material generation and asset management, and cooperate with the Jianying Assistant Agent and the scalable Skill ecosystem to cover the complete link from creativity to finished film.

It is worth noting that the product architecture of infinite canvas, intelligent Agent and plug-in Skill has long been the industry standard for AI video platforms. This upgrade of Jianying is essentially to break out of the positioning boundary of editing tools, officially enter the upstream one-stop creation track, and launch head-on competition with native AI video players.

For a large number of AI video platforms created by "Jianying department entrepreneurs", Jianying's personal entry into the market, although late, may bring a considerable impact.

It has a huge base of ordinary users, native technical support of the Seedance series of models, and can directly connect to the Douyin distribution link. Third-party platforms such as LibTV and Flova urgently need to strengthen their own moat and convert their first-mover advantages into more solid product and ecological barriers.

02

ByteDance connects Jianying, Jimeng and Xiaoya Que

Are third-party platforms facing a major test?

AI generation has reconstructed the production method of professional content, but editing, as one of the core links of content production, has not disappeared itself, only the carrier and presentation form it carries have changed. For Jianying, the mass user base and the real material editing demand are still relatively stable competitive advantages.

At present, AI videos are more concentrated in To B professional scenarios: standardized and mass-produced content such as comic dramas, short dramas, and commercial advertisements are more suitable for amplifying production efficiency through the Agent assembly line. But the core demand of the vast majority of ordinary creators is still the secondary creation of real life materials — travel clips, daily Vlogs, family records, and interest sharing, these contents cannot be completely generated by AI.

The core of editing is the control of time and narrative. As long as video is still the carrier of recording life and expressing opinions, the demand for editing will exist for a long time. This is Jianying's core basic market.

This round of AI capability upgrade is essentially the further sinking of professional editing capabilities: Jianying Assistant supports subtitle correction, batch slicing, and material screening through natural language; the mobile-end instant shooting and film production function reduces the threshold for ordinary users to make complete Vlogs; functions such as AI intelligent extension, local editing, and image quality enhancement simplify operations that previously required professional skills into one-click instructions.

The core role of these functions is to lower the technical threshold of creation, stimulate the expression willingness of ordinary users, and at the same time supplement more daily sharing content for Douyin, further enriching the diversity of the platform's content ecology.

A more noteworthy strategic change is that this update promotes the connection of ByteDance's internal content tool matrix.

The rapid development of third-party AI video platforms has promoted the penetration of the Seedance model in the industry, but the cost is also obvious — from script understanding to character design, from storyboard disassembly to video synthesis, the data of the entire production process is precipitated inside the third-party platform. As the model provider, ByteDance can only get the call volume, not the production process data, and these high-quality vertical training materials are precisely the core fuel for the iteration of multimodal models.

Now, through the connection of the account system, the image, video and audio materials generated by Jimeng and Xiaoya Que can be imported into the Jianying timeline with one click, forming a smoother content output closed loop from AI creative generation, AI editing and fine editing to one-click release on Douyin.

Compared with the experience of third-party platforms that need to repeatedly export and import and switch accounts across platforms, the collaboration efficiency in the ByteDance ecosystem is higher, which also increases the migration cost of users.

This also conforms to ByteDance's layout idea in the video field: it is not limited to the role of underlying model supplier, but extends to the ecological provider covering the full creation cycle. By precipitating the creator's character assets, project engineering, content revenue sharing and other links in its own system, it retains complete creation behavior data, and strengthens ecological stickiness and data barriers.

03

ByteDance, Kuaishou and Tencent have increased their efforts one after another

Interactive video game competition turns to "tool + platform"

ICG Studio, released synchronously with Jianying Hub, is a product expansion of Jianying in the new content form, and also an important part of ByteDance's interactive video game layout.

This product is positioned as a one-stop interactive video game production platform, with the official Slogan "STORIES, MADE PLAYABLE", and it is currently in the limited internal test stage.

The core function of ICG Studio is to combine AI short drama generation capability with branch narrative system: creators only need to determine the main story line and key choice points, and AI can automatically complete the details of multi-branch plots, generate visual assets with unified style, output corresponding storyboard pictures, and finally combine them into a runnable video game work with interactive logic.

This product release is not an isolated action, it is the continuous implementation of ByteDance's "tool + platform" idea in the interactive content track. In July 2026, Douyin launched the gray test of the "Interactive Space" function, and launched the "Interactive Space Square" on the App side — an independent lightweight interactive content aggregation entrance.

The supporting capabilities on the creation side have also been paved: Douyin Interactive Space is connected to Trae, ByteDance's AI programming tool. Creators do not need professional code foundation, and can generate HTML interactive works through natural language dialogue, package and upload them to the square for display.

The release of ICG Studio this time, in addition to the lightweight interactive tools, supplements the production capability of professional-level interactive video games, supports more complex branch narratives, finer visual assets, and more complete storyboard editing, which can meet the creation needs of professional teams for medium and heavy interactive content.

So far, from lightweight interactive content to professional-level interactive video games, from creation tools to distribution entrances, ByteDance's interactive content layout has taken initial shape.

Similar to ByteDance's entry logic, Kuaishou also chooses to lay out interactive content based on its mature editing tools and short video ecosystem.

In July 2026, Kuaishou announced that it will launch the AI interactive content creation function soon, and simultaneously start the recruitment of the first batch of cooperative creators, covering three forms: branch interactive plot, AI character dialogue, and light interactive application. The underlying technology relies on the multimodal generation capability of Keling AI, which can directly convert multi-branch scripts into video clips with interactive nodes.

More critically, it connects the tool link with Kuaiying, so creators do not need to switch platforms, and can complete the whole process from script generation to post-editing in the familiar editing tool. For Kuaishou, the short video content ecology and creator accumulation are natural advantages, and interactive content can quickly connect to distribution scenarios to complete the closed loop from production to launch.

Different from the creation tool extension route of short video platforms, Tencent chooses to open the incision from the QQ social ecology. In July 2026, Anytale under QQ launched the internal test for interactive video game creators, focusing on zero-threshold text-to-interactive video games, which can quickly reconstruct the plot by inputting novel text, and build branch lines with one click; the editor comes with QTE and variable systems, supports real-time interaction and numerical judgment, breaking out of the shallow interaction mode of simple options.

What is more platform-featured is its deep linkage with the QQ ecology: the AVG-TO-BOT function can allow game characters to walk out of the plot and have real-time dialogue with players on QQ, expanding narrative gameplay; creators' works can also reach massive users relying on QQ's social channels and user scenarios.

Prior to this, Tencent had professional layouts such as Zaohua Workshop to serve the vertical creator circle; the emergence of Anytale has completed the closed loop of mass-oriented creation tools + distribution scenarios, which is the latest implementation of Tencent's "tool + platform" route in the interactive video game track.

It is not difficult to find that the starting points of several players are different, but the direction is converging: they are no longer satisfied with being a single-point creation tool, but trying to bind creation capabilities with distribution scenarios to open up the complete path of interactive content consumption.

Conclusion

When technical indicators such as generation image quality and rendering speed are gradually leveled, the competitiveness of single-point tools is weakening, and the focus of competition begins to shift to full-cycle creation experience and complete ecological system. Whether traditional editing tools extend the capability boundary to the upstream or emerging creation platforms supplement distribution entrances to the downstream, the essence is to compete for the dominance of the creation process.

The final direction of this path still depends on the prosperity of the content ecology and the maturity of the business model, but the competition direction of full-cycle ecologization is clearly visible.

This article is from the WeChat official account "AI Value Officer", author: Xingye