If you haven’t heard of AI influencers yet, you’re late to the party - and chances are you’ve already scrolled past one without realising it. From the irreverent style of Lil Miquela - whose recent selfie with Nancy Pelosi alongside a very Gen-Z-coded caption went viral - to Mia Zelu’s sunset shots by the beach in what looks like a perennial southern European summer, AI influencers are multiplying fast and catering to a multitude of aesthetics.

What are AI influencers?

AI influencers (also called virtual influencers, AI-generated creators, or digital avatars) are fictional online personas built with computer-generated imagery and artificial intelligence. They behave much like the influencers we follow every day: they create lifestyle content, promote products, and sign brand deals. Except, they're not real.

The crisis in traditional influencer culture

This rise of AI-generated influencers comes against the backdrop of a long-running crisis in traditional influencer culture. Human creators have been increasingly criticised for:

• Unrealistic depictions of everyday life
• Homogenised aesthetics that blur into one another
• Lack of relatability, with the gap between “influencer” and audience widening

And we also know how much pressure engineering an online persona puts on influencers themselves, as a lot of them start opening up about their experiences of burnout.

With the foundations of influencer culture already so shaky, what role will AI creators play in shaping its future?

Changing the rules of influencer culture...

One possibility is that they offer the perfect solution to this crisis. Because AI influencers are just fictional characters, the pressure of reality doesn’t exist anymore - and they can stretch imagination in ways humans can't, without the risk of coming across as inauthentic.

Lil Miquela can post from Hong Kong in the morning and New York an hour later. Nobody accuses her of promoting an unrealistic lifestyle - because in fact she is not real.

AI influencers sidestep the impossible balance between relatability and aspiration that human influencers constantly wrestle with. They play by different rules, and in doing so, they can offer fresh alternatives.

... Or exacerbating its issues

But another option is that AI creators are going amplify the very problem of authenticity that influencer culture is already deep into. If their whole point is to mimic ‘real’ influencer behaviours, what do they actually add that feels new and exciting?

In a social media landscape of constant repetition and over-exposure to shiny, attention-grabbing content, people may be craving something far more grounded - like the micro-influencer rebuilding their backyard shed, or the local artist teaching you how to paint - rather than yet another celebrity that gets invited to the VMAs or the Formula 1 paddock.

If the objective of AI influencers is to move in the same circles, post the same content and make the same partnerships as real influencers, then maybe we don’t need another Porsche pic after all.

The future of influencer marketing: human or AI?

Are AI influencers going to bring a genuinely imaginative twist to influencer culture, or are they just slicker copy-paste digital versions of the same inauthentic and unrelatable culture?

One thing is clear: authenticity still matters. Whether it comes from a human influencer refurbishing their kitchen or a virtual character reimagining what’s possible, the future of this landscape will be shaped by who earns trust and closeness, not just who can perfect the traditional influencer performance.

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For related content, see our blog post on tech moral panics