AI trends of October 2026, week by week

1–7 Oct: the cats, the zombie couple and Bulin 47

The month opened with the clips that are still its biggest. Five of the seven below were posted in the first four days, and three of those five star a pet.

1. I Wanna Love You↗ Rising ≈59M views · 1 pet · 10s 1 Oct: @novoreel posts a white cat in a mustard suit singing by the tennis courts, copying a human night-selfie routine that had spread from 29 Sep. About 23.8M plays and 3.6M likes on 23 Oct. Dogs joined from 9 to 13 Oct, and Chelsea FC's version in its own kit had about 4.1M plays by 23 Oct. See yourself in it
2. Zombie Love Story ≈30M views · 2 people · 10s 1 Oct: the first TikTok posts go up, among them a CapCut tutorial for a template called My Beloved Zombie (3.4M plays, read 15 Oct). US Google searches for "zombie trend" peaked on 6 Oct, and at least ten websites named after it were registered between 4 and 11 Oct. It takes two photos: you, and the one who turns. See yourself in it
3. Bulin 47🔥 Hot ≈382M views · 1 person · 15s 2 Oct: the Dominican artist's freestyle is filmed in Spain; the original TikTok had about 10.5M plays on 23 Oct. The first widely shared AI swap, a cat, came on 6 Oct and an own-face cut on 8 Oct. By our estimate about 381.6M views across TikTok, Reels and Shorts (read 23 Oct). See yourself in it
4. Smalltown Boy Cats↗ Rising ≈46M views · 2 pets · 21s 2 Oct: Bellvtrix posts two cats doing a dance routine to Bronski Beat's 1984 single; the TikTok post had about 10.9M plays on 23 Oct. On 8 Oct @zefosik put their own cats in a living room (about 4.0M plays), and by 13 Oct three remake sites had template pages. See yourself in it
5. Single Ladies Dog↗ Rising ≈66M views · 1 pet · 15s 4 Oct: @king_odiee posts Odie, a long-haired dachshund, in the middle spot of the Single Ladies routine: about 45.5M plays and 5.6M likes by 23 Oct, more than four times the Bulin 47 original's TikTok. A white Maltese version went up the same day (about 16.8M). On 6 Oct the owner showed it was made from one photo and a reference dance. See yourself in it
6. Burning Bridges🔥 Hot ≈20M views · 1–2 people · 20s 5 Oct: the first side-by-side of the music video and an AI recast goes up (about 344.6K plays). A repost of a version with sitcom characters took off on 9 Oct and had about 2.9M plays on 23 Oct. By then it was slowing and had dropped from 3rd to 7th on our radar. See yourself in it
7. ATM Glitch 1 person · 10s 6 Oct: @ehustlr's black-and-white CCTV-style reel of a cash machine pouring out notes, with the on-screen line "The only glitch I'm praying for this year"; MakeViral reports more than 338,000 likes. Reposts carried it from the US to Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan and India by 16 Oct, and a one-photo remake from 17 Oct had 979,541 likes on our 23 Oct read. See yourself in it

8–14 Oct: ads, money and the hair dye filter

Week two's waves started in odd places: a burger shop's ad, a CapCut template account, a streamer's comedy skit, a field hockey photo in Argentina. At least three of the six broke outside the US first.

1. Caught at the Window 1–2 people · 10s 8 Oct: a burger shop in Ankara posts a window ad that gets about 46,000 likes, against about 30 on its usual posts. An unofficial concept ad on 11 Oct reached about 25.4M views by MakeViral's count, and by 14 Oct small brands in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia were copying it. Ours keeps your face and drops the product. See yourself in it
2. Money Flex ≈50M views · 1 person · 10s 9 Oct: a CapCut template account posts the routine at 04:43 UTC, and that afternoon an Instagram account posts the AI dog on its hind legs throwing a pile of cash (362K likes on 20 Oct). A TikTok repost of the dog passed 5.5M plays, and on 17 Oct a CapCut template of it showed 431,900 uses. See yourself in it
3. Hair Dye Filter↗ Rising ≈50M views · 1 person · 10s 11 Oct: a creator in Nepal posts a burgundy dye clip during Dashain, on a sound first posted on 2 Oct. Creators in Nigeria took it up from 14 Oct, one clip reaching 2.2M views by 17 Oct, and MakeViral counted 407 videos and 6M views under #hairdyefilter on 16 Oct. Here it does burgundy, platinum, copper and pastel pink. See yourself in it
4. How I Become a Millionaire in 30 Days ≈30M views · 1 person · 10s 12 Oct: the first copy of a streamer's 18 Sep skit: the millionaire question and its "Get a job" reply. The first AI dog version followed on 14 Oct, and on 16 Oct @zenoxlayla's black-and-white dog in a car park, phone to its mouth, had 6.1M plays and 789K likes two days later. Make it with you or your pet. See yourself in it
5. Perdón Trend 1 person · 3 photos 13 Oct: a creator in Argentina posts an AI field hockey photo, then the real one; 4.5M views by 19 Oct. A chihuahua post on 17 Oct reached 6.6M views and 2M likes, and the sound went from about 90,000 videos on 19 Oct to about 148,200 on 21 Oct. A photo template here: the dressed-up AI shot, then you. See yourself in it
6. Closed on Sunday Choir ≈1.0M views · 1 person · 10s 14 Oct: the first AI versions of the 2019 music video's choir ending, one an armoured kitten among singing cats and one a person captioned "Might've started a new trend". An app was advertising a template by 15 Oct (30 ads by 16 Oct, MakeViral counted), and #closedonsunday held 3,144 videos on 17 Oct, most of the top ones fan edits. See yourself in it

15–21 Oct: flying cars, leaf tops and the fridge cam

The busiest week for brand-new waves. Most of these were days old when the remake sites added them, and Halloween started to show up in the filters.

1. Flying Roadster ≈25M views · 1 person · 10s 15 Oct: a car maker's new roadster flips on thrusters at a livestreamed demo in Texas. The first AI clip of an ordinary driver blasting off over traffic went up on 16 Oct, a flying car stealing the last parking space had 7.7M views by 17 Oct, and #teslaflyingcar held 888 videos and 9.5M views that day. See yourself in it
2. Banana Tree Run ≈15M views · 1 person · 10s 15 Oct: @big.e.ug posts 11 seconds of running and leaping across banana leaf tops (1.8M views on 20 Oct). How-tos began on 16 Oct, the CapCut template showed 203,900 uses by 18 Oct, and a how-to from Pakistan passed 1.3M on 19 Oct, per MakeViral. A slower walking version had been around since 4 Feb. See yourself in it
3. Nunca Ando Sola ≈12M views · 1 person · 3 photos 15 Oct: the version most people copy goes up, a woman kneeling on a golden path with three shadows ahead of her. One-photo templates followed on 17 Oct, and on 18 Oct Spanish how-tos reached 1.1M and 962K views in a day, per MakeViral's timeline. Saint Jude's feast day, 28 Oct, is still ahead. See yourself in it
4. Pet Fridge Cake Heist ≈85M views · 1 pet · 10s 16 Oct: an AI reel filmed from inside a fridge catches someone sneaking tiramisu; about 2.7M likes by 19 Oct. The first pet version, a cat, came on 17 Oct, the day Google searches for "tiramisu meme" hit their high for the month, and had 1M views and 40,700 shares by 19 Oct. Your cat or dog does the stealing. See yourself in it
5. Enchantress Filter 1 person · 10s 16 Oct: a UK template maker posts the CapCut template "Enchantress Filter 1", tagged #halloween. It took off in the US on 18 Oct, a Spanish version ("Filtro Hechicera 1") followed from Mexico on 20 Oct, and the template showed 16,346 uses on 23 Oct. One photo, a sorceress look; pets work too. See yourself in it
6. Symmetry Filter 1 person · 3 photos 16 Oct: the first CapCut tutorial of the new wave goes up and passes 450,000 views, on a four-picture template with 1.5M uses. A Spanish tutorial from 17 Oct had 904,000 views by 22 Oct, and on 23 Oct Google already suggested "symmetry filter tiktok". It's the 2021 inverted-face check, back as an AI edit. See yourself in it
7. Anime Eye 1 person · 3 photos 16–17 Oct: the star-eye selfie appears in Kazakhstan, one post reaching 1.3M views and 430,000 likes on 17 Oct. The #animestareyetrend tag started on 18 Oct, English how-tos on 19 Oct, and on 20 Oct the sound had about 39,100 videos and was gaining about 18,500 a day. A photo template here. See yourself in it
8. Bby Wow Guy ≈70M views · 1 person · 10s 17 Oct: an AI remake in a black cowboy hat gives the 2025 concha-stare party clip a new name, Dime Dime Baby (about 1.82M plays on 23 Oct, by RemakeYourMeme's read). MakeViral dates the song pairing to 12 Oct and the first AI remakes and tutorials to 17–19 Oct. By our estimate about 70M views across TikTok and Instagram (23 Oct). See yourself in it

22–24 Oct: new scenes, no breakout yet

Three days into the last full week, no clip wave that started in it has dated numbers yet. The dated news from these days is older waves growing: a US symmetry-filter compilation posted on 22 Oct at 832,000 views, and new Google suggestions for Anime Eye and Perdón. What is new is scenes. These went live here on 22–23 Oct, each sold by only a few AI video sites, with no viral post behind them that we could find.

1. Living Tattoo ≈200K views · 1 person · 5s 22 Oct: two AI video sites sell a tattoo that comes to life, one showing a butterfly on a cheek and one a dragon that breathes fire (1 use shown). Ours draws butterflies or a dragon on your forearm. Early, and an old idea: "ink mapping" animated real tattoos back in 2015. See yourself in it
2. Burger Pet Window 1 pet · 10s 23 Oct: a remake site's guide to a cat caught eating a burger at the window is dated the day we added ours. One pet photo, an unbranded burger. People search it next to Cheeseburger Wah, the older real-cat meme from 2022. See yourself in it
3. My Car in Tokyo at Night 1 car · 10s 23 Oct: your car on a neon Tokyo backstreet at night, from one photo. A template more than a meme, but the search behind it is climbing: Google's Keyword Planner showed "ai car video" up about 900% in three months when we read it on 22 Oct. See yourself in it

What October's AI trends have in common

Five things that came up again and again this month, each from the trends' own dated pages.

Every other October wave you can make here

The other trends whose AI versions started or broke in October, in the order they began: Popstar's Neymar post (2 Oct), Toc Toc's AI cat (4 Oct), Cheba Man's recasts (4–8 Oct), the knight sword swap (5 Oct), Rumpelstiltskin's recasts (6–7 Oct), Unforgettable Car's first own-face AI copy (7 Oct), the Wonder Goal remakes (9 Oct) and so on to the subway singers of 18 Oct and the pet afterlife check-in of 21 Oct.

First seen is the earliest dated event on each trend's own page, which is often the song or the original clip, years before its October AI wave. Views are our estimates across TikTok, Reels and Shorts with the date we read them; a blank means we haven't estimated it yet.

How this month's list is dated

A trend is on this page when its AI version started or broke in October 2026: the first AI post, the first template, or the day it took off, from the dated timeline on that trend's own page. Trends that started in September and only kept going, like Gang Gang Dance or La Calabaza, are on the 2026 page instead.

Play and like counts are from posts we opened or from MakeViral's and RemakeYourMeme's dated reads, each with its date. View totals are our estimates, and say so. This page is updated until the month ends; for the newest seven days only, see this week's AI trends.