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You scroll through your feed and suddenly you see a virtual influencer. He has millions of followers, collaborations with top brands, and he responds to comments almost 24/7. It sounds like fiction, but it’s already reality. Artificially created characters, AI influencers and brand bots, are no longer just a joke and are gradually entering the mainstream. And by 2026, they will not only complement the work of people, but in some cases may even lead advertising campaigns.
Data from the Famesters agency confirms the trend: 48.7% of marketers are already using AI in their influencer campaigns, and 62.9% plan to connect AI in the near future. Global AI marketing revenues in 2024 reached $36 billion, and are predicted to exceed $100 billion by 2028. So brands are clearly betting on algorithms that can create emotions.
In this article, we will look at how AI characters are changing influencer marketing, what technologies are behind them, and what can await us in the coming years.
AI influencers give brands something that humans can’t: complete control, consistency, and scalability. They don’t get tired, they don’t age, they don’t miss deadlines, and they don’t get into scandals. For brands that want predictability, this is a near-perfect combination.
One of the most famous examples is Lil Miquela, a digital influencer from Brud Studio who has amassed over 2.5 million followers on Instagram and has worked with Prada, Samsung, and other global companies. Despite being completely artificial, her content is built on emotion and storytelling, and it works: the audience perceives her as a real person.
For brands, AI characters are not “collaborators” with whom you need to negotiate fees or deadlines. They are assets that can be customized for any audience and any campaign goals. Where a live influencer requires a brief, negotiations, and bid approval, an AI avatar is simply “stitched” to a specific message, style, tone of voice, and even the desired behavior.
According to a report on influencer marketing, 84.8% of brands consider advertising collaborations effective, and 59.4% plan to increase budgets for influencers in the coming year. Some of this money is already being directed to experiments with AI content, “digital agents,” and virtual brand ambassadors.
Another case in point is Kuki AI, a hybrid of a chatbot and an influencer. In 2024, she appeared in H&M’s digital collection campaigns, where users could communicate with her in real time and discuss looks. This combination of an influencer and an interactive assistant makes such campaigns many times more engaging than a regular advertising post.
The trend is becoming obvious: companies are increasingly using AI influencers in advertising campaigns, and this brings tangible metrics – views, engagement, and brand mentions. In many cases, digital characters work no worse, and sometimes better, than human influencers.
Below are a few cases that have already become references for the market.
Samsung enlisted virtual influencer Lil Miquela in a global Team Galaxy campaign alongside Steve Aoki, Millie Bobby Brown, and Ninja to promote the Galaxy S21 and refresh brand perception among Gen Z and millennials.
The result is telling:
This case proved that digital characters fit perfectly even in mainstream campaigns of tech giants.
Back in 2019, Renault created Liv, an AI influencer to promote the brand’s eco-strategy. Liv appeared on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, spoke in multiple languages, and responded to comments using NLP.
The campaign showed:
AI works not only for big brands. Micro-influencers are also actively integrating digital assistants.
The scenarios are already as follows:
For small authors, this is a way to scale without losing personal intonation and connection with the audience.
Behind every digital influencer is a complex infrastructure. Generative models, animation engines, “agent” systems and entire tech stacks that allow you to create characters that behave like they are alive. It is these technologies that make AI characters convincing, interactive and flexible.
Models like GPT-4, Claude 3, and their successors enable AI influencers to conduct personalized dialogues, respond to comments, and adapt to the audience’s style.
Today, LLMs are taught to:
Platforms like Unreal Engine and Reallusion iClone create realistic avatars that can be shot in real-time video.
They are the ones that form the “body” of a digital personality — movements, facial expressions, light, kinetics.
Modern companies are working on AI systems that can:
Such “agent” frameworks enable influencers to operate independently of constant human control — in fact, as autonomous digital entities.
In 2024, the market expanded significantly. Startups:
These tools allow brands to launch full-fledged AI characters: from appearance to voice and character, everything is generated and updated in real time.
The Famesters Mobile App report shows that in 2024, applications based on generative AI grew by 109% – this is the most explosive category of applications in the world.
This ecosystem gives brands the opportunity to create “turnkey influencers” – with their own style, narrative and behavioral model. It is technology that has become the foundation of a new type of storytelling in influencer marketing.
The main opportunity is efficiency. AI-characters can create personalized content for thousands of audience segments simultaneously, update messages in real time, and automatically adjust to user reactions.
For brands, this is an almost ideal model: a continuous cycle of “audience behavior → instant content optimization”.
But along with opportunities come risks.
According to research:
That is, the audience wants personalized solutions, but does not want to feel deceived. This means that brands need to find a balance between transparency and creativity: AI should enhance emotional contact, and not imitate it “under the guise of a person”.
AI influencers open the way to more inclusive marketing. Brands can create characters that represent:
This makes it possible to show a wider, more diverse society where traditional influences sometimes falter.
According to research:
62% of consumers trust content less if they know it was created by AI.
At the same time, 81% have a positive attitude towards AI personalization.
That is, the audience wants personalized solutions, but does not want to feel deceived. This means that brands need to find a balance between transparency and creativity: AI should enhance emotional contact, and not imitate it “under the guise of a person”.
AI influencers open the way to more inclusive marketing. Brands can create characters that represent:
This makes it possible to show a wider, more diverse society where traditional influencing sometimes falters.
In 2026, the market expects a surge in hybrid collaborations, where:
This combination of human emotion and AI accuracy could become the new standard.
AI influencers and brand bots are no longer a short-term trend. They are a logical development of digital marketing.
This proves: the audience is ready to perceive and interact with digital characters.
Human influencers are unlikely to disappear, but AI will certainly amplify their influence. Brands that are already experimenting with their own AI characters or agents will gain a competitive advantage when the line between “virtual” and “real” becomes almost invisible.
And perhaps in 2026, followers will not care who is behind the post, as long as it speaks to them in a real way.