The future of influencers: expect more virtual

Without going into the moral implications of choosing "robots" over humans, virtual influencers can open up new social media channels for brands. Depending on the brand, VI marketing can be a great way to connect with audiences. It’s up to brands to decide what the trade-off is between messaging, having control over a virtual persona, a likely boos... See more

Imagine a world where purchasing decisions are made as a result of virtual influencers having grown large, loyal follower bases on various social media platforms. Now, imagine the opportunities that would arise from this for both brands and creators. The good news is that this is the world we’re currently living in. In the upcoming years, with the ... See more

Brands are well attuned to the power of the influencer, but are afraid of getting embroiled in a scandal. As social intelligence company Influential’s founder and chief executive Ryan Detert puts it, human creators could have “a crazy night, get arrested or they have a slur of some sort on their page”. Virtual influencers on the other hand “have a ... See more

At a time when interacting safely with other humans can no longer be taken for granted, the appetite for digital spokespeople is accelerating. Brands are expected to spend as much as $15 billion annually on influencer marketing by 2022, up from $8 billion last year, according to Business Insider Intelligence. A growing slice of that money belongs t... See more

This is one reason I’m bearish on companies like Brud, which are creating virtual influencers (yes, it’s a thing). Gen Z has a strong “authenticity detector” and I’m skeptical that digitally-created influencers will replace real, tangible, relatable people.

TikTok—one of the biggest repositories of AI slime—is exploring the possibility of releasing virtual influencers to compete for brand deals against its human influencers. Instead of a brand paying a human influencer five or six figures to flog its clothes or cars (a sum TikTok doesn’t get a cut of) the platform wants to offer brands the option of u... See more