AI Influencers vs Human Influencers: What Brands Should Know Before 2027

AI influencers – computer-generated personalities with their own social media accounts – get a lot of attention, but most large brands remain cautious. In a 2025 survey by the World Federation of Advertisers, only 15 percent of major advertisers had tested AI influencers and 60 percent had no plans to do so, with 96 percent of the hesitant citing consumer trust. Meanwhile, almost every brand uses AI behind the scenes. The likely future is not AI replacing human influencers, but AI making work with real people faster and smarter – while real, recognisable faces become more valuable.

Here we explain what AI influencers are, where they work and where they do not, what the EU AI Act requires, and how we think brands should approach the technology.

What changes for AI in influencer marketing in 2027?

AI influencers are not expected to take over in 2027 – but the rules and expectations around AI are getting stricter. These are the changes that are already decided or reported:

• The last AI Act deadlines arrive. The transparency rules in Article 50 already apply, and the last deferred technical requirements for marking and detecting AI-generated content follow on 2 February 2027. In 2027, AI disclosure is a normal part of compliance, not an experiment.

• EU consumer rules for influencers are on the way. The European Commission plans to propose a Digital Fairness Act before 2027, and influencer marketing is one of the areas it is expected to regulate. The proposal will then be negotiated, so brands should follow the process during 2027.

• AI agents enter the toolbox – and trust becomes the main worry. In CreatorIQ’s latest State of Creator Marketing report, brands ranked autonomous AI agents and AI-powered campaign insights as the capabilities offering the greatest competitive advantage over the next three years, while AI-related issues made up 44 percent of brand responses about the greatest threat to trust.

• Interest in virtual influencers stays limited. Linqia’s latest report found that 89 percent of enterprise marketers avoid virtual influencers, even though 74 percent use AI in their workflows.

Our conclusion for 2027: use AI to work faster and smarter behind the scenes, be open whenever AI shapes what the audience sees, and let real, recognisable people carry the relationship with the audience.

What is an AI influencer?

An AI influencer, also called a virtual influencer, is a fictional character created with computer graphics or generative AI that publishes content in social media as if it were a person. Some are openly presented as digital characters; others are designed to look as realistic as possible. Behind them are usually a company or agency that controls the appearance, personality, posts and brand deals.

The best-known example is Lil Miquela, a virtual character who has worked with major fashion brands. Today the term also covers AI-generated avatars of brands, digital twins of real people and fully synthetic creators produced at scale.

Why are brands interested in AI influencers?

The WFA survey of large multinational advertisers lists the perceived benefits clearly: cost efficiency (77 percent), reduced risk of influencer scandals (58 percent) and scalability (58 percent). An AI character never gets tired, never says anything unexpected and can appear in any setting, language or format. For brands in some categories – gaming, tech, certain fashion and beauty segments – that kind of control is attractive.

Why are most brands still cautious?

The same WFA survey shows the other side. Among brands with no plans to use AI influencers, 96 percent cited concerns about consumer trust and acceptance, 73 percent worried about authenticity and 58 percent about risks to brand reputation. Linqia’s latest State of Influencer Marketing report found that 89 percent of enterprise marketers avoid virtual influencers, even though 74 percent use AI in their workflows.

Interest also appears to be cooling. Digiday reported, based on data from the marketplace Collabstr, that the share of brands willing to include AI creators in campaigns fell from 86 percent in October 2024 to 60 percent in August 2025. The same article noted, based on CreatorDB data, that Lil Miquela had lost around 140,000 Instagram followers in a year and ranked in the 14th percentile for engagement.

The audience picture is mixed. A US survey of Gen Z by Whop, cited by Digiday, found that 40 percent follow a virtual influencer – so there is curiosity, especially among the young. But the IAB found that 95 percent of US advertisers have concerns about AI in creator marketing, with loss of human connection as the main worry.

What does the EU AI Act mean for AI influencers?

The transparency rules in Article 50 of the EU AI Act now apply. Deepfakes and certain AI-generated or manipulated content must be clearly disclosed, and providers of generative AI systems must make their output identifiable as AI-generated. Some technical requirements for marking and detection have been deferred, the last of them to 2 February 2027.

In practice, brands using AI-generated people or AI-altered images and voices of real people in their marketing need to be open about it. The WFA survey found that 78 percent of brands say they will disclose when influencers are AI-generated, but only 22 percent had internal guidelines in place. In Sweden, the normal rules of the Marketing Act also apply: advertising must be clearly labelled, whether the face in the post is human or synthetic.

How is AI actually used in influencer marketing today?

The real AI revolution in influencer marketing is happening behind the scenes. CreatorIQ reports that 95 percent of brand respondents use AI, most often for captions (45 percent), research (44 percent) and video or graphic editing (41 percent). In Influencer Marketing Hub’s latest Benchmark Report, creator discovery is the most common AI application (36.67 percent), while 21 percent use AI for content generation.

• Finding and vetting creators by analysing audiences and previous content.

• Drafting briefs, captions and translations.

• Editing and versioning video for different formats and channels.

• Analysing performance and predicting what will work.

• Detecting fake followers and suspicious engagement.

Swedes are also becoming AI users themselves. According to Svenskarna och internet 2025, 40 percent of Swedes used AI tools in 2025, and three out of four of those born in the 2000s did. As audiences become more familiar with AI, they also become better at noticing – and questioning – synthetic content.

Will AI influencers replace human influencers?

We do not think so – and the data supports that view. Influencer marketing works because people trust people. HubSpot’s latest State of Marketing report found that 62.7 percent of marketers believe they need more unique, human-centred content to compete with AI. When the feed fills up with synthetic content, what is genuinely human becomes the differentiator.

There is also a darker side. Internetstiftelsen’s report shows that 60 percent of Swedes have seen a fraudulent ad on social media in the past year, and among them 40 percent said a sign was that the ad used celebrities. Fake ads using well-known faces, often AI-generated, make audiences more suspicious – which raises the value of genuine, transparent collaborations where the real person is visibly involved.

How should brands approach AI in influencer marketing?

• Use AI for efficiency – analysis, discovery, editing – rather than to replace the human relationship.

• If you test virtual characters, be open about it and follow the AI Act’s disclosure rules.

• Never create AI versions of real people without explicit consent and a clear agreement.

• Write internal guidelines for AI use in marketing before you need them.

• Invest in real personalities with genuine relationships to their audiences.

What does this mean for celebrity collaborations?

For us at Collabri, the conclusion is clear: AI is a powerful tool for planning, producing and measuring campaigns, but the value of a collaboration with personalities like Pernilla Wahlgren, Carina Berg or Markoolio lies in the fact that they are real people with real relationships to their audiences. That is something no algorithm can copy convincingly – and something audiences increasingly look for.

Key takeaways

• AI influencers are computer-generated characters; most large brands are still cautious about using them.

• Brands see cost and control benefits, but consumer trust is the main barrier.

• The EU AI Act now requires transparency about deepfakes and certain AI-generated content.

• Almost all brands use AI behind the scenes for discovery, briefs, editing and analysis.

• As synthetic content grows, real and recognisable people become more valuable.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an AI influencer and a virtual influencer?

The terms are often used interchangeably. Both describe a computer-generated character that acts like an influencer in social media; AI influencer usually implies that generative AI is used to create the content.

Do AI influencers have to be labelled?

Under the EU AI Act, deepfakes and certain AI-generated content must now be disclosed. In Sweden, sponsored content must also be labelled as advertising under the Marketing Act, regardless of whether the influencer is human or virtual.

Are AI influencers cheaper than human influencers?

They can be cheaper per post once created, which is why 77 percent of the brands in the WFA survey cited cost efficiency. But development, management and trust risks also cost money, and the effect on audiences is less proven.

Can AI help influencer campaigns with real people?

Yes. AI is widely used to find creators, write briefs, edit content and analyse results. Used well, it makes campaigns with real personalities faster and more precise.

Want to use AI smartly while keeping the human connection at the heart of your campaigns? Contact Collabri at info@collabri.se.

Sources

• World Federation of Advertisers – Major brands wary of using AI influencers (2025): https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/2025/04/28/major-brands-wary-of-using-ai-influencers

• Digiday – Crunching the numbers on brands and virtual influencers in 2025 (2025): https://digiday.com/media/in-graphic-detail-virtual-influencers-click-with-young-audiences-yet-brands-interest-wanes/

• Linqia – 2026 State of Influencer Marketing (2026): https://www.linqia.com/2026-state-of-influencer-marketing/

• IAB – Creator Economy Ad Spend to Reach $37 Billion in 2025, Growing 4x Faster than Total Media Industry (2025): https://www.iab.com/news/creator-economy-ad-spend-to-reach-37-billion-in-2025-growing-4x-faster-than-total-media-industry-according-to-iab/

• CreatorIQ – Creator Marketing Enters the Era of Efficacy (2025): https://www.creatoriq.com/press/releases/creator-marketing-enters-the-era-of-efficacy-brands-demand-scalable-roi-as-creator-budgets-surge-171-creatoriq-report-finds

• Influencer Marketing Hub – Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2026 (2026): https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/

• Paul, Weiss – EU Finalises Transparency Rules for AI-Generated Content (2026): https://www.paulweiss.com/insights/client-memos/eu-finalises-transparency-rules-for-ai-generated-content

• Internetstiftelsen – Svenskarna och internet 2025: AI – Artificiell intelligens (2025): https://svenskarnaochinternet.se/rapporter/svenskarna-och-internet-2025/ai-artificiell-intelligens/

• Internetstiftelsen – Svenskarna och internet 2025: Annonsbedrägerier (2025): https://svenskarnaochinternet.se/rapporter/svenskarna-och-internet-2025/annonsbedragerier/

• HubSpot – 2026 State of Marketing (2026): https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hubspot-blog-marketing-industry-trends-report

• Konsumentverket – Influencers reklaminlägg – regler för företag: https://www.konsumentverket.se/marknadsratt-foretag/influencers-reklaminlagg-regler-for-foretag/

• Covington & Burling (Global Policy Watch) – What to Watch in 2026: Key Developments in EMEA Consumer Protection (2026): https://www.globalpolicywatch.com/2026/02/what-to-watch-in-2026-key-developments-in-emea-consumer-protection/

• CreatorIQ – State of Creator Marketing 2026–2027 (2026): https://www.creatoriq.com/white-papers/state-of-creator-marketing-trends-2027

This article was written with the help of AI and reviewed by Collabri.