Great influencers use their personal taste, experiences or expertise to inspire trust, which is why they have historically been so valuable to brands. But in the age of hyperrealistic generative AI, that exchange of credibility is under threat.
Meltwater and YouGov’s research shows just 28% of consumers consider generative AI acceptable in influencer marketing. By comparison, 47% accepted its use in product advertising and 53% in entertainment content, making influencer marketing one of the least accepted uses of the technology we surveyed. That skepticism is understandable now that the line between a real creator and a synthetic one has become harder to see.
Lifelike, AI-generated influencers now appear in testimonial, product demonstration and haul videos advertising seemingly real products. Images of real public figures can be manipulated to make it seem as though they endorsed something they never touched. In many cases, viewers may have no obvious reason to suspect the person they are watching isn’t real.
This is a very different scene from the chic wave of virtual influencers that hit social media feeds just a few years ago. AI-generated models like Lil Miquela and Shudu combined fashion-world aspirationalism with tech-world innovation. Their artificiality was part of the appeal, allowing brands to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Followers knew these accounts weren’t human and engaged with them anyway.
Today, AI influencers have become easier to create and harder to detect, blurring the lines between experimentation and deception. That puts more responsibility on brands to make the role of AI clear before audiences have to figure it out for themselves.
The research suggests consumers are especially sensitive to being kept in the dark. Across the markets surveyed, 59% said their trust in a brand would decline if its use of AI were not disclosed. And 86% said it was important for content to disclose when generative AI had been used. Those numbers make the expectation clear: audiences expect brands and creators to be honest about where AI has played a role.
Instagram has reached a similar conclusion from what it is seeing on its own platform. In the company’s recent announcement of updated labels for AI-generated profiles, it shared that it found “people don’t like seeing a profile that seems human, only to find out later that the person featured is AI-generated.”
The platform has since replaced the softer “AI Creator” label with the more explicit “AI-generated profile” and limited the reach of some accounts featuring synthetic people without clearly identifying them. The change marks an important shift in how social media platforms approach deceptive AI content, but it won’t be the last. Brands need to be proactive about protecting the credibility of their influencer marketing programs as platforms race to keep up.
Building greater trust externally calls for more rigorous visibility internally. In practice, this means strengthening how you vet creators and document partnerships, while monitoring what is being published in your brand’s name. Managing influencer activity and brand monitoring through a centralized, consistent workflow makes it easier to spot potential issues before they escalate.
Most of all, brands need to commit to transparency around their own use of generative AI. Make clear disclosure an expected part of the audience experience instead of an oversight or afterthought. Importantly, this doesn’t mean generative AI use is a dealbreaker for all audiences. Hiding the technology, on the other hand, can quickly become one.
Brands will never be able to control everything that appears online, especially as deceptive, AI-generated content becomes more common and harder to spot. Brands can, however, control the standards they set for their own influencer programs. Being clear about where AI fits into those programs gives audiences a better reason to trust what they see.
For more on what consumers expect from brands using AI, read Meltwater and YouGov’s Public Perception of AI-Generated Content report.
