Brands Want to Automate Influencer Marketing with AI — But Consumers Are Pulling Back

Last summer, Meta's Zuckerberg dropped a prediction: by the end of 2026, the entire advertising workflow would be fully automated by AI.

The industry went wild.

The debate was all about the advertising side. But I noticed a more interesting question: if ads can be automated by AI, what about influencer marketing?

Who to hire, what to post, how to vet them, how to negotiate, how to track performance — could this entire workflow be handed over to AI?

I went through six or seven freshly released industry reports. And honestly, what I found surprised me.

The Brand Answer: Yes — And the More Thorough, the Better

CreatorIQ's The State of Creator Marketing 2025-2026 report asked a pointed question: Do you agree with fully automating influencer marketing using AI?

35% of brands chose "strongly agree."

Among industry leaders, that number climbed to 51%.

Add in those who "somewhat agree": 34% of brands and 36% of industry leaders.

That adds up to nearly seven in ten.

And the opposition? Only 6% of brands and 1% of industry leaders said "strongly disagree."

That number shocked me. Think about it — "handing over the entire process of finding influencers, negotiating deals, generating creative, and tracking results to machines" sounds radical, doesn't it? But the real attitude from brands is: bring it on, and the faster the better.

Why?

Because the labor cost of influencer marketing is simply too high. A mid-sized campaign can take weeks from sourcing creators to going live. Communication, revisions, more communication — every round is carried by humans. Brands have long wanted someone to take this pile of busywork off their hands. And AI is standing right at the door.

But Here's the Thing: Brands Don't Want Virtual Influencers

Automation is one thing. But the moment you get specific about what form that takes, brands pull back sharply.

Linqia's 2026 State of Influencer Marketing asked brands a concrete question: Which of these do you plan to try next year?

• Partnering with virtual influencers
• Building a brand avatar of your own
• Using a creator's digital twin

The results:

Only 9% said they'd partner with virtual influencers.

Only 2% plan to build an avatar, and 2% want to use digital twins.

89% plan to touch none of it.

That gap is enormous. The very same brands shouting "strongly agree" to automation turned around and said "no" to virtual influencers.

What does that tell you?

Brands want AI to get the work done — not to replace the humans doing it.

They're happy to let machines handle sourcing, scheduling, and reporting. But the person in the content still needs to be real. A real person with real followers, a real face, and a real story. Virtual influencers? More gimmick than sales driver — and brands know it perfectly well.

Creators Aren't Sitting Still Either

Just like brands, creators have already worked AI into their daily workflows. Writing scripts, editing videos, designing thumbnails, replying to comments — which of these isn't AI-assisted?

But their read on the future is even more radical than brands'.

Epidemic Sound's The Future of the Creator Economy Report 2025 asked creators one question: How will the industry change in the next two to three years?

28% said: AI-generated content will reshape the entire industry.

27% said: AI-driven creator marketplaces will emerge. You upload your data, and brands, licensing deals, and briefs get matched to you automatically.

These marketplaces are already starting to appear. TikTok and YouTube are both building this kind of infrastructure.

Even more striking: another 27% of creators predict that AI tools will directly replace editors, agents, and collaboration teams.

Read that again. Nearly three in ten creators think half their team could be replaced by AI within two years.

Here's how I see it.

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, AI genuinely lets solo creators do what once required a whole team. That's liberating. But on the other hand, the middle layer of the entire ecosystem — the people who negotiate deals, revise drafts, and shield creators from headaches — is being steadily eaten by algorithms.

Short-term, it's an efficiency boost. Long-term, it might be a different story.

Consumers: Sure, Use AI — But Don't Hide It From Me

We've covered brands and creators. Now it's time for the most important party.

Consumers.

Sprout Social ran a pulse survey called The State of Social Media in 2025. One question asked: What worries you most about brands on social media?

52% listed "brands posting AI-generated content without labelling it" as a top concern.

More than half.

Tied with "misusing my personal data."

What this tells you about consumer attitudes toward AI content, plain and simple, is this: they don't like being lied to.

Let me show you an even more jarring set of numbers. Billion Dollar Boy published a report called Muse Two, tracking how consumer preferences for AI-generated creator content have shifted:

In 2023, 60% of consumers said they preferred AI-generated creator content.

In 2025, that number dropped to 26%.

More than halved.

Now look at it from another angle: consumers who felt AI brought a "negative impact" to the creator economy rose from 18% in 2023 to 32% in 2025.

Meanwhile, those who felt AI brought a "positive impact" actually slipped from 34% to 31%.

Let that sink in.

In two years, fewer people liked AI content and more people disliked it. This runs directly counter to the industry's all-in bet on AI.

Why?

My read: consumers aren't saying they hate AI itself. What they hate is the obvious, soulless, mass-produced AI garbage. There's a perfect English term for it — "AI slop."

As social media starts drowning in this stuff, consumers' instinctive reaction is: I'd rather see something from a real person, even if it's a bit rough around the edges.

Three Parties, Three Agendas — What Happens Next?

Line up all three perspectives side by side, and a fascinating picture emerges.

Brands want automation but not virtual humans. Creators are using AI and predicting it'll eat their own teams. Consumers have been burned by AI slop and are drifting back toward real people.

These three directions don't fully align. Brands are pushing, creators are following, consumers are hesitating.

And that misalignment is precisely the most important variable to watch in the year ahead.

If brands dive headfirst into AI automation, cut their labor costs, and then discover that consumers are increasingly turned off by AI-generated content — that road hits a dead end. But if brands use AI to boost efficiency and reinvest the saved energy into "real people, real content," it might actually be an opportunity.

The best place for AI in influencer marketing, plain and simple, is playing the supporting role.

The data backs this up. Brands don't want virtual influencers. Consumers don't want unlabelled AI content. Both instincts point in the same direction: AI belongs backstage, not in front of the camera.

But whether things will actually play out this way — nobody can say for sure. After all, two years ago, 60% of consumers said they liked AI content. Winds shift.

The one thing I'm fairly certain of is this: the brands and creators who treat AI as a tool, not a stand-in, will last the longest.