The Impact of AI on Influencer Marketing and Virtual Influencers

Key points

• AI processes huge amounts of data and helps marketers gain insights that mitigate human bias.
• Ways in which AI is already and will further influence influencer marketing include influencer identification, campaign optimization, fraud detection, and content creation with, for example, virtual influencers and computer generated imagery (CGI).
• Ways in which AI is changing the influencer marketing industry include enforcing contractual terms and confidentiality agreements, predicting future performance, centralizing data points and improving scale.

By learning from data, AI can help us determine the most effective outcomes in a variety of areas. Consequently, AI can also play a key role in streamlining the discovery and execution of influencer marketing campaigns. Instead of manually searching for the best influencers, companies can use AI to identify relevant people and evaluate their content and performance to ensure brand compatibility.

In addition, AI can provide real-time feedback to review, optimize and measure campaigns. Because influencers bring a unique touch to campaigns, it can be difficult to optimize them on a large scale, especially compared to digital channels where A/B testing is more feasible. AI can help marketers overcome this hurdle by providing constant feedback and optimization suggestions, making campaigns more effective and efficient.

Artificial intelligence and influencer marketing

AI has already started to influence the influencer marketing field in many ways and is likely to continue to do so in the coming years. The reason for this is the amount of data that artificial intelligence can process. You can find out more about the importance and opportunities of data-driven influencer marketing on Kolsquare’s influencer marketing blog. Here are some of the ways in which AI will complement or further change the influencer marketing landscape:

• Identifying the right influencers: AI can help identify the most relevant influencers for a given campaign by closely analyzing factors such as engagement, audience demographics and content quality. With advanced features and customizable filters on our database of over three million international influencers, Kolsquare helps you find the right profile for you.
• Predict and measure campaign success: AI can also be used to predict the likely success of a campaign based on factors such as data and demographics of the target group. This can help brands optimize their campaigns in advance for maximum impact and ROI. But of course, AI analytics also help measure success during and after the campaign.
• Automating content creation: AI can be used to automate various aspects of content creation, such as image and video editing, copywriting and even influencer avatars (virtual influencers). This can help streamline the content creation process and ensure that content is optimized for maximum impact. In addition, virtual influencers or CGI can now be strategic content for a campaign; read more later in this article.
• Fraud detection: AI can also be used to detect fraudulent activity, such as fake followers and engagement. At Kolsquare, we have developed a  “Credibility Score,” which shows you which influencers you can trust based on a number from one (untrustworthy) to 100 (extremely trustworthy). In addition, these tips will help you identify fake influencers and avoid falling for a scam.
• Audience analysis: AI can be useful for more than just detecting influencer scams. AI can also be used to analyze influencer audiences and gain valuable insights into demographics, interests and behavior.

Basically, all the listed points are interdependent or mutually beneficial. You can use artificial intelligence in one step of your influencer marketing funnel, or you can use it to optimize all your processes.

The impact of AI on influencer marketing

The impact and possibilities of AI are undeniable and have taken influencer marketing to a new level. To ensure that your collaborating partners respect the contract, automatic copyright infringement notifications are essential. AI tools can automate the entire engagement process and detect potential infringement by influencers. This information helps marketers minimize risks before closing a deal and prevent infringement from occurring.

Using natural language processing (NLP), AI can predict influencers’ ability to achieve a brand’s goals, making it a powerful tool for evaluating the success of a campaign. AI can also predict whether an influencer’s “influence” will increase or decrease over time and help companies identify potential partnerships with micro-influencers, resulting in increased brand awareness and sales.

AI makes it possible to centralize data and extract meaningful information, making it easier to manage an influencer marketing campaign. Scalability is also not an issue, as AI solutions can help to seamlessly execute influencer campaigns with different audience sizes.

Working with virtual influencers is also on the rise and is perhaps the most far-reaching change in influencer marketing through AI.

What are virtual influencers and CGI?

Virtual influencers or CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) are digital avatars controlled by real people to create content on social networks. The use of virtual influencers offers a cheaper alternative to traditional celebrities, greater control over messaging, the ability to convey a consistent brand message and create an emotional connection with the target audience.

At the same time, virtual influencers and CGI are criticized for being perceived as less authentic or even creepy due to the lack of a human element. Although they themselves and their lifestyles are computer-generated and therefore pure invention, it is not unreasonable to assume that followers could also be fake. By April 2023, virtual influencers like Miquela have already arrived in the world of social media and marketing, if not for everyone, and with further improvements in artificial intelligence, the effectiveness and efficiency of CGI influencers will increase.