Human Touch

We had some friends over for dinner recently and someone brought up how the AI actress that had caused a stir recently. F is an amateur stage actor himself and has a lot of sympathy for those who are up in arms over Tilly Norwood. From the conversation moved to influencers which is undergoing a dramatic realignment as brands increasingly turn to artificial intelligence and virtual creators to cut marketing costs. Once, influencers could command substantial fees for brand partnerships, social media promotions, and sponsored trips. Now, however, corporations are discovering that they can achieve similar or greater reach at a fraction of the expense by using AI-generated personalities. This is happening to people I know of, even if not directly. What used to be a very stable gig for these folks is now pretty badly stressed. 

Virtual influencers like Lil Miquela and Shudu can produce unlimited content around the clock without travel costs, salaries, or contractual negotiations, while maintaining the aspirational aesthetic that appeals to followers. This shift has allowed brands to reduce marketing expenditures by more than half for their influencer campaigns, freeing resources for performance advertising and product development. But for human influencers, this trend has ushered in an era of shrinking budgets and diminished opportunity. In the fashion, beauty, and travel sectors, once dominated by human creators, brands now rely on AI avatars to showcase products, model apparel, and “visit” far-flung destinations without ever leaving the studio. 

This automation undermines the need for paid collaborations, particularly affecting micro- and mid-tier influencers who depend on steady brand deals to sustain their income. Analysts project that up to 80% of influencers could see their partnerships disappear as AI tools flood the market with scalable, brand-controlled content. The result is an influencer economy under pressure: oversaturated with automated posts and constrained by shrinking sponsorships. Even as brands celebrate efficiency and creative control, the social web risks losing much of its authenticity and human touch. 

For creators, survival in this new landscape will require more than follower counts. it will demand genuine connection, transparency, and the uniquely human perspective that algorithms, no matter how lifelike, cannot replicate. That is the very antithesis of what an influencer has been all about until now. Someone with under fifty followers who've been around forever is a nobody but that is real. Not sure how anyone can leverage such a long-tail no matter how valuable it is.