Influencers. Trust, automated.
Influencers used to fake the lifestyle. Now they fake the person, and the friend recommending your moisturiser just got cheaper to fake.
THE GIST ON INFLUENCERS: "Trust, Automated"
What has changed about influencers?
Influencers used to fake the lifestyle. Now they fake the person. 76% of customers say they trust AI influencers' recommendations, and only 6% know they actually follow one. Because trust just got automated.
How did they fake it before?
For the last decade, influencers staged lives they didn't have, renting a fake private jet for 50 quid an hour to flex on the internet. There's a service in China that charges one pound to add your voice to stock luxury footage. People buy empty designer packaging on eBay just to be filmed unboxing it. It was sus, but most still believed.
What do AI influencers earn?
Now it gets even more meta. AI influencers like Lil Miquela have 2.4 million followers and earn over $8,000 per sponsored post. An AI model called Aitana Lopez makes 10,000 euros a month modelling fitness brands. Mango has just launched a teen campaign with only AI models.
It's now a £6 billion industry. AI influencers post 300 times a month and get double the engagement of human influencers. Brands are moving 30% of their influencer budgets to them. New York and the EU are legislating for disclosure of what they call synthetic performers.
Is this really new?
Influencer marketing has always been parasocial: strangers performing intimacy to sell you things. For a century, advertisers paid for trust through actors, then celebrities, then influencers. Each generation got cheaper and more intimate.
AI is the end state: trust generated by code, sold at zero cost. The friend recommending you moisturiser on the internet was never your friend. They just got cheaper to fake. Can you still tell the difference?
Should AI influencers have to say they are AI?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
How much do AI influencers earn?
Huw cites over $8,000 per sponsored post for Lil Miquela, and 10,000 euros a month for Aitana Lopez.
How are brands responding?
They are moving 30% of influencer budgets to AI influencers, which post 300 times a month and get double the engagement.
What is being legislated?
New York and the EU are legislating for disclosure of what they call synthetic performers.
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