The platforms built around AI video are compounding faster than almost any prior wave of creator tools. HeyGen went from $1M to $35M in ARR in about a year, then doubled to $200M in eight months. Synthesia crossed a $4B valuation less than three years after launch. Both numbers say more about how fast this category is growing than any survey could.
What's less clear is how evenly that growth is distributed. This page covers both sides: how creators themselves report using generative AI, and the platform-level numbers behind the tools they're using.
Part of our AI Video Generation Statistics 2026 series.
87%
Of creators who've tried generative AI say it accelerated the growth of their business or audience.
Based on a survey of 16,000+ creators across 8 countries, fielded May 2026.
Our take: Measured only among creators who'd already tried generative AI, a real number, but not evidence of how many creators have adopted it in the first place.
Adobe, 2026 Creators' Toolkit Report01 / 3
How creators are using it
Adobe's survey is the largest and most recent creator-specific dataset we could verify, and its headline number comes with an important caveat baked into the methodology: it only counts creators who'd already tried generative AI, not the full creator population. That's a real distinction, it tells you the tools work for people who adopt them, not what share of creators have adopted them in the first place.
87% of creators who've tried generative AI say it accelerated the growth of their business or audience (n=16,000+, US/UK/FR/DE/KR/JP/IN/AU, May 2026). Note: this is measured among creators who've tried it, not all creators surveyed.
Our take: The methodology note matters: "among those who tried it" is a very different claim than "of all creators."
Adobe, 2026 Creators' Toolkit Report
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The platforms creators are building on
These aren't survey numbers, they're the companies' own reported usage, and they're growing at a rate that's rare outside of consumer social apps. HeyGen and Synthesia both serve the same buyer, enterprise training and marketing teams, and both crossed 85-90%+ Fortune 100 penetration within a few years of launch, suggesting the enterprise avatar-video category matured faster than the open-ended generation category it sits next to.
HeyGen reached $200M ARR in June 2026, doubling in eight months: 30M+ users across 196 countries, 118M+ videos created, 85% of the Fortune 100 as customers.
Our take: 118M videos across 30M users works out to about 4 per user on average, likely a smaller group of power users driving most of that volume.
HeyGenSynthesia has 1M+ users and counts over 90% of the Fortune 100 as customers, after a $200M Series E at a $4B valuation in January 2026.
Our take: 90%+ Fortune 100 penetration from a product built for corporate training video, the unglamorous use case turned out to be the durable one.
SynthesiaPika reached 16.4 million users across its apps by October 2025, with $135M raised at a $470M valuation.
Our take: 16.4M users on a much smaller funding base than Runway or Luma, efficient growth, whether it converts to revenue at the same rate is the open question.
Fortune
03 / 3
The economics
Zoom out from individual platforms and the creator economy itself is one of the few markets where AI video is additive rather than a replacement: Goldman's forecast has the whole category nearly doubling, not shifting from one format to another. Higgsfield's throughput number, 4.5 million clips a day from about 15 million creators, works out to roughly one clip every three days per active user, a useful sanity check against any "AI video is mostly noise" assumption.
The creator economy is projected to nearly double, from ~$250B to ~$480B by 2027, driven by ~50 million global creators at a 10-20% CAGR.
Our take: Nearly doubling in under 18 months is an aggressive forecast, worth a return visit in a year to see if it held.
Goldman Sachs ResearchForbes: Higgsfield, a $1.3B-valued AI video startup, has tools used by ~15 million creators and ad agencies, producing 4.5 million video clips per day.
Our take: 4.5M clips a day from 15M creators is about one clip every three days per active user, a useful sanity check against "AI video is mostly noise."
Forbes
Frequently asked questions
How is AI video changing the creator economy?
The platforms are growing faster than almost any prior creator-tool category, HeyGen went from $1M to $35M in ARR in about a year, then doubled to $200M ARR in eight months. Adobe found 87% of creators who've tried generative AI say it accelerated their business or audience growth.
How many creators use AI video tools?
Individual platform numbers are large and growing fast, HeyGen has 30M+ users, Pika has 16.4M, and Higgsfield's tools are used by roughly 15 million creators and agencies. There's no single verified industry-wide count of all AI-video-using creators.
How big is the creator economy overall?
Goldman Sachs Research projects the creator economy will nearly double from roughly $250B to $480B by 2027, driven by about 50 million creators globally growing at a 10-20% compound annual rate.
Do most creators who try AI video tools actually stick with them?
The clearest data point we could verify is Adobe's finding that 87% of creators who've tried generative AI say it accelerated their growth, but that's measured only among creators who tried it, not the full creator population, so it doesn't tell us the overall adoption rate.