Brands are losing interest in AI influencers — but tech gains could bring a new wave of enthusiasm (www.businessinsider.com)

Brands are pulling back from fully AI-driven influencers: Collabstr transaction data shows brand partnerships with AI social accounts fell roughly 30% in the first eight months of 2025 versus the same period in 2024. Marketers cite two main causes — consumer backlash to obvious “AI slop” (high-profile examples include controversy around AI models in Vogue and union criticism of an AI actor) and weaker engagement compared with human creators. Agencies warn AI influencers struggle to deliver the authenticity and lived-experience narratives that drive trust and conversions, and brands fear reputational risk when AI is perceived to be replacing people. Still, the AI playbook for creator marketing is evolving rather than disappearing. A survey by Billion Dollar Boy found about 79% of marketers are boosting investment in AI-generated creator content, especially for post-production edits, rapid revisions and scalable avatars or digital twins. Tools such as Mirage (formerly Captions) and next‑gen models like Sora 2 promise higher fidelity and faster iteration, potentially making AI-generated content indistinguishable from real footage. The implication: short-term cooling for full AI influencers, but growing adoption of AI as a production and augmentation tool — raising measurement, disclosure and authenticity questions as content quality improves and detection becomes harder.