Instagram is rolling out a new AI video assistant inside its Edits app that analyzes creators’ Reels performance and suggests what content to make next. Announced September 30, 2026, the Edits Assistant began reaching all Edits users in the United States on September 30, with international expansion expected but not yet dated.

The assistant is built on the creator’s own data. According to Brett Westervelt, who leads the Edits app, it knows an account’s Instagram metrics, including follows, views, video retention, likes, and shares, and combines them with the creator’s comments, what is trending on Instagram, and what the audience is into. It can spot patterns in performance over time and surface insights that are hard to see from the metrics alone, such as why one Reel held attention while another fell flat, or which hooks are working for a specific audience.

Creators access it by opening the Edits app and tapping the chat icon, then asking questions like “What’s working on my account right now?” Beyond analysis, the tool generates fresh content ideas: video concepts, attention-grabbing hooks, captions, scripts, and audio suggestions matched to the creator’s niche and style, saveable directly from the chat. It can also research which concepts have found success on the platform and refine trial-reel variations based on how they are performing with non-followers.

Westervelt says Edits worked closely with a group of creators to develop the tool, and one piece of feedback shaped it: creators want a tool that handles the analysis, not one that does the creative work for them. The framing is deliberate. The assistant does the digging, and the creative calls stay with the creator. The feature is free inside the existing Edits app on iOS and Android, with a daily prompt limit. Power users can unlock higher limits through a Meta One subscription, with creator plans starting around $14.99 per month, and a dedicated Edits Plus option bundling cloud storage is planned.

The practical takeaway: Edits is evolving from a CapCut-style editor into a strategy layer, and creators who link their Instagram accounts get a free analyst that works from their actual numbers rather than generic best practices. Ask it what your top-performing Reels have in common before planning next week’s content, and use its hook suggestions as starting points to rewrite in your own voice. The creators who treat it as a research assistant rather than a content generator will get the most out of it.