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Hey readers,

By now, you’ve probably seen them during your doom-scrolling sessions.

They have the:

• Perfect lighting.

• Flawless skin.

• A caption about mental health.

• A partnership with L'Oréal or Calvin Klein.

You scroll, maybe pause, maybe even tap “like.”

But some of these creators aren’t creators at all. They’re characters. Built from code.

AI Influencers Are Here - And They're Already Winning

In 2023, the virtual influencer market was valued at $6.9 billion. By 2032, it’s projected to touch $154.6 billion. Yes, billions...

This isn’t a niche trend or a quirky experiment. This is a serious marketing shift, with real money, real followers, and no actual humans in the spotlight.

And people are into it.

Almost half of virtual influencer followers say they’re here out of curiosity.

But 36% follow them purely for the entertainment: the stories, the drama, the online persona.

The more human they seem, the more we’re drawn in.

Meet the Fictional Faces of the Future

USA

• Lil Miquel, the virtual fashion girl from LA, has over 2.7M Instagram followers.

• She’s been around since 2016, but today her career looks like any other mega influencer: brand deals with Prada, music drops on Spotify, and press features in Vogue.

• She earns an estimated $10M/year, without ever being real.

Spain

• Aitana López, Spain’s pink-haired digital model.

• Created by an agency called 'The Clueless', she pulls in €10K/month, posts regularly, and shares content on things like anxiety and self-worth. (A strange irony, considering she doesn’t exist.)

Brazil

• Lu from Magalu started as a virtual assistant for a retail brand.

• Today, she collaborates with Samsung, Intel, and Vogue, while also casually dropping lifestyle videos for her 6.6M+ followers.

India

• We have Kyra, who was created by TopSocial.

• She has partnerships with Amazon and boAt, celebrates Diwali on Instagram, and is being positioned as the country’s first AI fashion girl.

This isn’t just global, it’s deeply localized. These characters are designed to reflect culture, geography, and language preferences to blend in wherever they’re deployed.

Why Brands Are Betting Big

So why would a brand pick a virtual personality over a real one?

No scandals No contracts No downtime 100% control over the brand voice

AI influencers show up on time, say exactly what they’re told, and look exactly how you want them to, across five locations, five time zones, and five product categories if needed.

And with tools like:

• Midjourney for visuals

• ElevenLabs for voiceovers

• GPT-based systems for scripting The production cost is often lower than a single shoot day with a human model.

For brands, it’s not just novel. It’s strategic.

Not Just Pretty Pictures: They’re Now Storytelling Too

What started as static avatars is now a full-blown entertainment pipeline.

AI influencers today don’t just post selfies. They:

• Break up with their (also virtual) partners

• Share journal entries

• Release music

• Go on talk shows (sometimes hosted by humans)

The creators behind them (often creative agencies or full-blown AI studios) are crafting entire content arcs, complete with emotional beats and follower engagement strategies.

Some of these personas are more engaging than real influencers, and they never run out of content.

They’re scalable, they’re programmable, and they can be endlessly remixed to fit audience trends in real-time.

What About the Tech?

Most AI influencers are built using a mix of 3D design, generative AI, and animation.

Some are layered on real humans (with faces and voices generated by AI), others are 100% synthetic.

Back-end? Think Unreal Engine for movement, Stable Diffusion or Midjourney for visuals, and LLMs like GPT for caption-writing and DMs.

Many creators also train their own proprietary models to retain a consistent voice.

The result? Avatars that are visually and emotionally convincing, and almost indistinguishable from real humans in your feed, especially on platforms like TikTok, where authenticity is already a performance.

The Line Between Creator and Creation Is Blurring

Here’s where it gets weird.

Some virtual influencers now have:

• OnlyFans pages (yes, really)

• Fandom drama (breakups, betrayals, confessions)

• Merch lines

• Livestreams with human guests

All this... for characters who don’t exist.

A few even “collab” with real creators. One YouTuber recently interviewed an AI influencer (with both sides scripted, of course). But the fans didn’t seem to mind.

The Uncomfortable Side of All This

Sexualized Avatars

Many of these characters are designed... let’s say... for maximum aesthetic appeal. Like ultra-thin waists, flawless skin, conventionally attractive faces, and always-perfect lighting. The issue here is that most of them are managed by male-led teams. It’s a new layer of the 'male gaze manufactured by prompt'.

Deepfake Threats

With the same tech, anyone can create an influencer who looks like someone else. Real humans have had their likenesses copied and used for ads, adult videos, and even scams, without consent.

Human Creators Getting Pushed Out

Why pay a real person when an AI avatar never sleeps and doesn’t ask for royalties? As budgets shift toward digital avatars, we’re already seeing lower-tier creators lose out to AI equivalents.

What’s Next?

Virtual influencers are just the start. Expect:

• AI-generated podcasts hosted by fictional celebrities

• Entire fashion lines fronted by fake supermodels

• AI-led Twitch streamers who interact in real time with followers

We're not headed toward a dystopia. We're already there, just with great lighting and sponsored content.

Final Word

These influencers don’t eat, sleep, or age. They don’t make mistakes. They don’t ask for credit. And they’re starting to outperform humans in every metric that matters to brands.

But the most mind-bending part is that they feel more relatable than ever.

Yes, AI influencers are here to stay, but that does not mean it's the death of human creators.

Reading this in disbelief? Following any AI influencers already? Hit reply and tell me what you think, I’d love to hear what side of the uncanny valley you’re on.

Until next time,
Vipul Agrawal | Leeds1888

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