Brightcove’s new development strategy focusses on personalised, engaging video experiences through AI innovation, while simplifying content management, distribution and monetisation.
Brightcove is undertaking a strategic evolution in its approach to product development, balancing its characteristic focus on quality of experience, with new emphasis on innovation. The company is investing effort in areas that affect its customers the most, including upgraded monetisation tools, a more accessible, straightforward user experience and new AI-assisted features developed in-house.
Digital Media World talked to Richard Griffin, VP of Sales EMEA, about what is driving the changes coming to Brightcove. “We’re seeing a clear shift in what our customers expect from video platforms,” he said. “Both media and enterprise users are asking for tools that help them create more personalised, engaging video experiences, while simplifying how they manage, distribute and measure content.”
One priority is better monetisation. Many are looking for more effective ways to drive revenue through their video efforts. Others are focused on using AI to reduce manual work, such as automatically generating captions, translations or metadata. “Across the board, there’s a strong desire for platforms that are easier to use, faster to navigate and better equipped to deliver real business results. These needs have directly shaped our product strategy going forward,” Richard said.
Brightcove’s new direction results partly from working with some 50 customers from different industries, regions and use cases, leading to a product strategy that can readily adapt to the variable needs of modern video teams and support their ongoing business goals.
Innovation and Quality of Experience
The two themes Brightcove is focussing on – innovation and quality of experience – will be pursued simultaneously to make sure the company can accommodate all of its customers. Innovation efforts will encompass such new features as UHD live streaming, a native recommendations engine and a pilot for a native webinar and virtual event platform.
Richard Griffin, VP of Sales EMEA at Brightcove
Brightcove plans to expand its AI-based tools to handle automated metadata generation, caption generation, translation and audio dubbing in multiple languages. They are also working toward intelligent video clipping and reformatting to optimise media for social publishing, and smart content analysis to help target advertising more precisely.
Meanwhile, work to improve users’ quality of experience will involve refining the core platform to address specific upgrades like vertical video support, animated thumbnails, and a full update to the UX/UI functions for ease of use and simpler workflows. “We are redesigning the platform’s interface to make it simpler, cleaner and easier to navigate. This will help both technical teams and non-technical users get their work done faster, with fewer clicks and less complexity,” said Richard.
“The support for formats like vertical video and animated thumbnails was added to modernise how content is presented and consumed, and match the way people are consuming content today. On the technical side, AI features like predictive buffering and adaptive bitrate optimisation, will help achieve smoother playback across devices and networks.”
Bending Spoons
At the foundation of Brightcove’s transformation is proprietary AI technology from Bending Spoons, the company that acquired Brightcove in February 2025. Bending Spoons’ technical expertise includes a vertically integrated stack, developed by acquiring key components of its supply chain, that accelerates delivery and supports direct integrations. Brightcove can use these capabilities to act more quickly with greater control at lower cost, build with more intelligence and ultimately deliver a more polished experience.
Richard remarked on Bending Spoons’ strong track record of building recognised products at scale and incorporating AI tools and features to enhance value for users. “Examples are Remini, Evernote and Meetup,” he said. “We hope to unlock the same customer value at Brightcove, taking advantage of Bending Spoons’ AI expertise to deliver competitive solutions quickly. For instance, we’ll soon introduce tools that automate common video tasks like captioning, dubbing and metadata generation. All of these tools come together into an efficient platform, closely aligned with their needs.
Taking Control of the User Experience
It won’t be limited to extending Brightcove’s existing AI Suite – we’re rebuilding it from the ground up. While a few early components like Auto-Captions and the Metadata Optimizer existed, most of the original tools were not yet built or relied on third-party vendors. We’ve shifted the strategy to bring ownership entirely in-house.
This means we now control the entire user experience, backend logic and prompt engineering, while still using high quality LLMs from external partners. Now, everything we’re building – from a Universal Translator to a fully native Content Multiplier and new AI-powered advertising capabilities – is designed specifically for our customers' workflows.
By owning the full stack, we can innovate faster, ensure tighter platform integration, and deliver AI tools that are not just smarter, but are deeply aligned with how our customers create, manage, and monetize video content. In doing so, we're rethinking the entire experience to make AI truly work for Brightcove users.
The Audience Connection
Because viewer engagement is integral to what Brightcove does for their clients, it’s important that the new developments help users control and strengthen their connection to their audiences. For media organisations, the new recommendations engine will surface more relevant content and keep viewers engaged for longer. Richard said, “The real-time captioning and audio dubbing will also enhance our localisation features to reach global audiences in more personal, accessible ways.
“For enterprise customers, the upcoming webinar and virtual event platform will give users effective ways to engage audiences in real time – in particular for marketing, internal communications or training. All of these changes are designed to give both media and enterprise customers more control, more insight and more ways to connect meaningfully with their viewers.
Luca Ferrari, CEO of Bending Spoons commented, "At Brightcove, our aim is to deliver a powerful, reliable platform that is aligned with the needs of modern media and enterprise users. Bringing our new product strategy to life combines customer insight with Bending Spoons' AI expertise to build a long-term strategy hand-in-hand with our customers." www.brightcove.com
