The Future Of AI Influencers – Today and Tomorrow
The future of AI influencers is a topic of great significance in today’s ever-changing world of social media. Human influencers have undeniably left a lasting impact on the industry, with their unique creativity and captivating style. Their ability to set trends and influence their followers has resulted in a thriving market worth 21 billion dollars. However, amidst this rapidly evolving landscape, a new player has emerged – AI influencers. Poised to revolutionize the future, these artificial intelligence-powered influencers are set to shape the industry in ways we have yet to imagine.
The rise of AI influencers presents both opportunities and challenges, as their ability to generate content and engage with audiences in real time raises questions about authenticity and the role of human influence in the digital age. Nonetheless, as technology continues to advance, AI influencers hold the potential to redefine social media marketing and provide brands with innovative approaches to reach their target audiences.
Lu Do Magalu’s name comes first among the most popular AI influencers on social media today. Which is often seen in the advertisements of Adidas and Samsung companies on her channel. The second name comes from Lil Miquela’s which is the creation of Trevor McFedries and Sarah Deco of Downey, California. It has partnered with big brands like Chanel and Givenchy. Not only this, it also has its own YouTube channel.
If we define AI Influencers in short words, then we can say that they are computer-generated characters who provide a unique way of selling a product or connecting with the consumer. These are a type of virtual influencers which are specially created with the help of CGI, artificial intelligence and motion capture. Their work is the same as that of a human influencer.
Today, AI influencers are changing the way marketing and creation very powerfully by blurring the lines between the real and virtual worlds. Millions of followers join the social media accounts of these influencers and buy the products promoted by them. This is a smart idea for doing business in a smart world.
Table of Contents
What Are AI Influencers – Are They Real or Fake?
As we already mentioned that AI influencer is a computer-generated character that works in the virtual world. Like Other influencers, they take selfies, dance, participate in events, and post events related to daily life. Among these, some AI influencers run their own YouTube channels and many even run podcasts.
Let us tell you that AI influencers can come in many forms, colours and sizes. From cartoonish characters like Noonoouri to photorealistic characters like Aitana Lopez. These are specially made with CGI, motion capture and well-programmed methods. Their main job is to increase brand awareness as well as sales and connect with consumers so that the product can be promoted as much as possible. These are specially designed for people like Gen Z and Gen Alpha who have grown up with social media and spend most of their time on it.
What are the benefits of AI Influencers?
In today’s changing times, Artificial Intelligence is interestingly presenting new stories. Due to this huge changes have been seen in the marketing and industry world. We are sharing with you some of their special and important benefits as follows.
Providing greater creativity and freedom to brands
Compared to Other influencers, AI influencers are quite capable and friendly. They are not limited to time, place or physical facilities, rather their creators can mould them into whatever form they wish. If we take example, we can take the example of an AI influencer named Miquela who can be present anywhere, just do some programming and coding work and that’s it. Miquela can be present in many different places at once and can speak in many different languages.
This flexibility greatly increases the productivity of brands, allowing them to be as creative and push the boundaries as possible in their advertising.
Giving brands more control over their messaging
Because we know that Artificial Intelligence influencers do what they are told to do by programming. In contrast, human influencers set their feelings, attitudes and goals in the advertisement of a product. There is no margin for error with AI influencers and even if any error occurs, it can be corrected very easily. Alison Bringé, the chief marketing officer at marketing analytics company Launchmetrics, explained in an interview that AI influencers can easily relate to a brand’s product by how it looks, what it says, or how it is presented. They are a little less dependent on someone’s kindness.
In today’s times, brand safety is more important whether it is a big brand or a small one. Human influencers can make changes within themselves whereas AI influencers cannot. Influencers people can also get involved in a scam or controversy which may result in raising many questions on the safety of the brand. Kahn said that you never know, anything can happen to any person in this real world. These risks can be avoided by working with a virtual influencer.
Lower cost than Human Influencer
If we talk about cost, according to the 2024 Harvard Business Review report, human influencers prove to be more expensive than AI influencers. According to one report, a human influencer with one million followers charges around $250,000 or more per post, while Lil Miquela (who has 2.6 million Instagram followers) charges around $9,000 per post. However, this cost may be more or less depending on the location and person or popularity.
Much Easier to Scale
It has been observed that brands can create different virtual influencers as per their needs, target specific markets and demographics and stay connected with their followers 24 hours a day, but doing the same with influencers may prove to be a bit difficult. Sienna Santer, a creator strategist at marketing agency Buttermilk, told Built In that there are no deadlines for working here. You can do as much work as you want and you can use AI influencers for whoever you want. This is because they do not have creative abilities. All it takes is some code fiddling. In contrast, with other influencers, it is much more difficult because we have to keep up with someone’s human behaviour.
The Ability to Stand Out in a Saturated Market
In today’s new era, it has been seen that there is a wealth of content on social media. According to recent statistics, it has been found that more than 1 billion photos are posted daily on Instagram and more than 280 videos are posted daily on platforms like TikTok. It is a great thing for some aspiring brands to promote their products on such social media platforms and it becomes easier to do all this by collaborating with AI influencers.
In today’s era, big brands need to be out of the box and these influencers can connect with different consumers in different regions to enhance the quality of the brands’ products. A study in the European Journal of Marketing found that artificial intelligence influencers have the same ability to garner a following as influencer people. AI influencers appeared more capable of talking to consumers about a product. A study conducted by Meta found that clothing retailer H&M saw their product sales increase 11 times when they ran an ad with an AI influencer cookie. This was a big deal in itself
Some Drawbacks of AI Influencers
Most marketing experts say that social media users crave authenticity, especially younger consumers. What authenticity means to you depends on you, as everyone may have their definition depending on the individual. But that’s not what the ultra-curated look of these virtual influencers appears to the world.
The Lack of Human Experiences
Today’s young consumers use social media more as a search engine rather than to connect with media. Most of their searches are related to things like what to wear, where to go, what food to eat etc. For all these things they turn to influencers and follow them.
However, an AI influencer lacks a lot of human experience. With just some coding and programming we can make them do what we want. They don’t know what is the role of life, how to take care of their skin, how to examine clothes etc. They cannot understand all these things completely and they lack all these things.
Difficult for Consumers to Believe
The issue of authenticity can be particularly complex. Virtual influencers like Shudu and Rozy make it clear on their social platforms that they are digital. This makes it difficult for people to trust the product. But as AI sophistication increases, it will likely become increasingly difficult to distinguish what is real online from what is not.
Offerman said in one of his interviews that any content labelled as AI generated and which talented person operated the AI should be fully disclosed. With this, we can be especially successful in stopping disinformation. Today it is very important that we use AI in a good and proper way. If used incorrectly, it can have a direct impact on brands and people.
The EU’s AI Act and US President Biden’s executive order on AI mandate explicit disclosure of AI content. It has also been ordered that all AI-generated content on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook etc. should be given in this manner.
Can objectify Women and People of Colour.
Most AI influencers these days are young and thin women. Most of these are being presented as sexual commodities. It is a matter of concern that the unrealistic beauty presented by these personalities can cause great harm to children, teenagers and adults. Francesca Sobande, author and senior lecturer in digital media studies at Cardiff University, argues that the use of physical presence and embodiment is the latest example of the commodification of blackness. The bodies of black and multiracial women are being used as fodder for virtual influencers.
How do these AI influencers work?
As we know, no two AI influencers are alike. Some are created using sophisticated CGI and some use photo editing tools. There are some of these which are created with a simple image generator. All of them learn from those interactions to be more attractive in the future. It doesn’t matter what technology AI influencers are created using. The process of making AI influencers successful is much like that of human influencers. They have to carry such personality goals, humor, core values etc. to connect themselves with the product and brand. They build legitimacy by spreading product content across multiple social media platforms regularly, depending on its format and purpose.
Behind a successful AI influencer, there is a huge team working to ensure that the campaign being run is successful. It is made successful by using new ideas and new techniques and when successful, everyone gets paid. Many AI influencers earn money by showing advertisements for products and brands on their social media pages. Some brands are even creating their AI influencers, offering the ability to customize the digital ambassador’s appearance, speech and actions to their exact specifications.
Top 18 AI Influencers Need to Follow in 2024
Till now you have learned about AI Influencers and understood their work, benefits and drawbacks. Let us now introduce you to some famous AI influencers of Instagram and TikTok in the article of The meta gadget. So here is the list of the top 18 influencers…
Top 18 AI Influencers Need to Follow in 2024
- Lu Do Magalu – @magazineluiza
- Lil Miquela – @lilmiquela
- K/DA – @kda_music
- Thalasya – @thalasya
- Imma – @imma.gram
- Qai Qai – @realqaiqai
- Kyra – @kyraonig
- Shudu Gram – @shudu.gram
- Bermuda Is Bae – @bermudaisbae
- Aitana Lopez – @fit_aitana
- Rozy Gram – @rozy.gram
- Lechat – @lechat.vv
- Milla Sofia – @millasofiafin
- Giorgina Aleman – @gioalemann
- Noonoouri – @noonoouri
- Zinn – @plusticboy
- Seraphine – @seradotwav
- Ion Gottlich – @iongottlich
1. Lu Do Magalu – @magazineluiza
Lu do Magalu, better known by the nickname “Lu”, is named at number one in the list of Instagram AI Influencers. Not only this, but it also throws light on the increasing market level and the increasing importance of influential people. In 2003, Luiza’s magazine was launched as an e-commerce platform. Since then it has become a cultural icon of Brazil.
Currently, it has about 6.6 million followers. To date, she is one of the most followed AI influencers in the world on social media platforms. Their content ranges from unboxing to product reviews and software tips. It has collaborated with many big brands.
2. Lil Miquela – @lilmiquela
The name ‘Miquela Sousa’ comes in the second position in this list. Everyone also knows her by the name of ‘Lil Miquela.’ Her popularity is very high in the list of Instagram AI influencers. This is a true digital darling that is the creation of Trevor McFedries and Sarah Deco of Downey, California. Her popularity has increased with more than 2.6 million followers on Instagram so far.
She hit the digital scene in April 2016 and quickly became popular. She was included in Times Magazine’s list of the ’25 most influential people on the Internet’. Her fashion career is also brilliant, she has worked with big brands like Prada and has also launched her clothes.
3. K/DA – @kda_music
Coming at the third position in the list of AI influencers is K/DA presented by Riot Games, which is one of the very famous influencers on Instagram. It is a type of virtual band. The other members of the band are Ahri, Evelynn, Kai’Sa and Akali who deliver rap along with singing skills. With over 5 lakh followers on Instagram and an engaging presence on Twitter, she has captured the hearts of millions of fans around the world.
4. Thalasya – @thalasya
At the fourth position of the list comes the turn of Thalasya of Jakarta, Indonesia. It made its debut on digital screens on October 21, 2018. He maintains his status on Instagram with almost half a million followers. Most of his followers are women interested in areas like travel, fashion and music. Thalasya supports many sectors such as gastronomy, health etc. She is also the co-owner of her attractive clothing store ‘Yipiiiii’. Created by Magnavem Studio, Thalasya Edge is much more than a virtual person. She combines real life with passions and interests.
5. Imma – @imma.gram
The next name in the list is Imma, who looks like a beautiful Japanese doll. It represents “the now” on Instagram. This Tokyo’s ModelingCafe has been created. Her pink bob haircut makes her more different and attractive from others. Imma’s interests span many diverse cultures, from fashion to film. Imma has collaborations with big brands all over the world, which include big brands like PRADA and MAGNUM.
6. Qai Qai – @realqaiqai
Next on the list is Qai Qai who is not just a digital personality but also an Instagram sensation who woos you in a very charming and hypnotizing manner. Due to his unique and quirky style, Qai Qai has gained a huge number of followers on Instagram. All these followers eagerly wait for every post of Qai Qai. It is true that due to such influencers, it has become difficult to differentiate between reality and virtual life in today’s digital age.
7. Kyra – @kyraonig
As an Indian AI influencer, Kyra projects a digital aura on Instagram that is no less than mesmerizing. Kyra connects the window to the virtual world with the real world where art, technology and human essence are included. With each of her posts, Kyra tells a story of the future that connects us humans with technological prowess and gives us a new perspective on technology.
8. Shudu Gram – @shudu.gram
Shudu Gram has created a buzz not only on Instagram but all over the world. She is a very beautiful AI influencer who is known as the world’s first supermodel and is perfect in beauty. Her existence challenges traditional norms and proves that beauty and impact can exist far beyond the tangible. Each of those posts on Instagram is appreciated and their followers remain a fan of their posts. There is no doubt that Shudu Gram will present herself as a talent in the coming future. She is truly one of the top influencers on Instagram.
9. Bermuda Is Bae – @bermudaisbae
Due to her golden looks and vibrant presence, Bermuda Is Bae has attracted thousands of followers on Instagram. Bermuda Is Bae is no less than a digital entertainer in the form of a virtual influencer. Created by digital artisans Trevor McFedries and Sara Decou, it doesn’t just limit itself to the digital realm but instead offers a mix of art and excitement in the musical realm.
10. Aitana Lopez – @fit_aitana
At 10th place in our list of AI comes the name of Aitana Lopez, who is known as an influencer from Spain. Her pink-colored hair further enhances her personality. She shows more interest in fitness and gaming. Aitana Lopez, an AI influencer managed by ‘The Clueless’, is emerging as a new phenomenon on Instagram. There is no doubt that Aitana Lopez is one of the most beautiful influencers known for her engaging content and great virtual presence.
11. Rozy Gram – @rozy.gram
South Korea’s Rozy Gram comes in the 11th position. She has established herself as a sensation on Instagram, especially among Gen Z. She is the creation of Sidus Studio X, a visual creative production studio based in South Korea. To reflect Rozy Gram’s potential, she has been awarded the title of “GamSeong JangIn”. If we talk about the income of virtual influencers, then Rozy Gram’s earnings have reached almost $2 million. Due to his virtual presence, he has collaborated with top brands like American Tourister, Calvin Klein, Chevrolet etc.
12. Lechat – @lechat.vv
A new virtual extraterrestrial personality arriving in Earth’s digital realm is named ‘Lechat’, hailing from a distant planet, M-City. Its unique blend of cosmic charm and entertainment is very beautiful. Be it K-Pop, K-Dramas or any material things that give happiness on earth. Lechat has been increasing his number of followers on Instagram based on his interests. ‘Lechat”s digital journey extends to YouTube Channels where she performs her music on VR Chats.
13. Milla Sofia – @millasofiafin
Milla Sofia, the most beautiful Instagram model from Helsinki, Finland, has millions of followers from TikTok to Instagram who are crazy about her style and her attractive looks. Milla Sofia is just 24 years old and adds a touch of great charm to an AI-dominant field. As soon as Milla Sofia steps into the world of fashion, she gets praised by many people. From Instagram to TikTok, her fans say interesting things about Milla Sofia.
14. Giorgina Aleman – @gioalemann
The name of the best virtual influencer who has registered her name at 14th position in our AI list is ‘Giorgina’. She is a virtual influencer who travels the world and speaks both English and Spanish. The account was recently created on October 15, 2023. Since then, she has more than 5 lakh followers. Giorgina has collaborations with big companies like Cadillac, Calvin Klein and Coca-Cola. To make such an impact in such a short period is huge.
15. Noonoouri – @noonoouri
Noonoouri was created by German graphic designer Joerg Zuber. It has been featured in advertisements for fashion giants such as Dior, Valentino and Balenciaga. Noonoouri has also had a successful music career and is the first solo virtual influencer to sign a Warner Music deal.
Noonoouri’s debut single “Dominoes” was a collaboration with Warner, German DJ Alle Farben and a team of creatives. Her voice was created using generative AI. Not only this, since its release on YouTube in September 2023, it has been viewed approximately 260,000 times.
16. Zinn – @plusticboy
The first male influencer in our AI list is ‘Zinn’. He is the brother of Japanese virtual influencer Imma, who is Presented by. Aww Inc. Has around 47.1K followers on Instagram. Genie is mostly seen in Harper’s Bazaar Taiwan. He has modelled for brands like Polo and endorsed brands like Mercedes Benz.
17. Seraphine – @seradotwav
In this list of AI by Themetagadget, the name of ‘Seraphine’, a virtual influencer interested in being a songwriter and producer, comes in 17th place. Riot Games, the creator of the hit game League of Legends, made her. Till now she has around 361K followers on Instagram who are big fans of her new music. You can often find Seraphine playing guitar, hanging out with her cat, or cooking on Instagram. She has also shared some memories of his childhood on social platforms like Instagram.
18. Ion Gottlich – @iongottlich
If you have not heard the name of ‘Ion Gottlich’ then what would you have heard? Italian track cyclist cartoon Ion Gottlich has been compared to the Avengers ‘Incredible Hulk in Spandex’. His number of followers on Instagram will be around 75.5K which is a big thing. Most of his followers are associated with the sports world. He has been created by South African animator Claudio Pavan. The main reason for creating him is to promote cycling personalities. He provides regular updates on sports like popular bike races, like the Tour De France, real-life cyclists etc.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q.1 What is an AI Influencer?
Ans: AI influencers are computerized characters created by human beings or any company. Their main job is to increase brand awareness and connect customers and people with the product as per the instructions so that companies or brands can generate maximum revenue. This is a digitally latest and economical way of marketing.
Q.2 Can AI influencers replace human influencers in the future?
Ans: According to Santer, human experience is something that cannot be replaced by any technology, that is, humans have the unique ability to empathize and understand real life, which virtual experiences cannot. AI influencers can only do what they are instructed to do. Their intelligence is not as sensitive as that of humans.
But for now, we can say that AI influencers cannot replace human influencers. They are very good at imitating humour, emotions and creative actions like humans. But still, they cannot connect with people the way a real person can connect in today’s time.
Q.3 How to Create AI Influencers?
Ans: To create an AI influencer you have to go through many steps. First of all, you have to create your account on RenderNet Account, after that, you sign in and select your model. After inserting some prompts, images are made and then can be posted last.
Q.4 Who is the most famous AI Influencer?
Ans: According to recent news reports, ‘Lu Do Magalu’ is leading the list of top influencers on Instagram. She has approximately 6.9 million followers on Instagram.
Conclusion
In our changing digital times, AI has made our work much easier. From photo editing to video editing, from voice generator to content writing, nowadays all our work is being done by ArtificiaI Intelligence. In such times, social media marketing becomes easier with a virtual personality.
On the other hand, if we talk about real personality i.e. human influencers, then still many big brands use human influencers for marketing and are ready to pay huge amounts of money. The time is not far when marketing will be driven by AI and real personality will be replaced by a virtual personality. Maybe it may take time for the phase to come but that time will come. This is the future of AI.
Source: This article draws inspiration from Builtin, Izea, Bracai and various sources on the internet.