Virtual influencers, computer-generated personas with their own social media followings, have grown from a curiosity into a genuine marketing category. Brands work with these characters much as they would a human influencer, arranging sponsored posts, product placements, and even scripted personal narratives.
The appeal for brands is control. A virtual influencer never ages, never generates unplanned controversy, and can appear in unlimited locations and outfits simultaneously without the logistics of a human shoot. Some companies have created their own branded virtual spokespeople rather than licensing existing ones, treating the avatar as a piece of owned intellectual property.
AI avatars are also expanding into customer-facing roles beyond marketing: virtual presenters for news and weather segments, AI-driven hosts for livestream shopping events, and animated tutors in educational apps. Real-time generation, where an avatar’s expressions and speech are produced live rather than pre-rendered, has made these use cases more practical for interactive settings like customer service.
Audience reception is mixed. Some viewers enjoy the novelty and consistency of a virtual persona, while others report discomfort once they learn a favorite creator or presenter is not a real person, particularly when the AI nature of the account was not clearly disclosed. Several regions now require influencer marketing disclosures to explicitly state when a persona is entirely computer-generated.
As the underlying generation and voice technology continues to improve, the line between a heavily filtered human presenter and a fully synthetic one is likely to blur further, making clear labeling standards an increasingly important part of maintaining audience trust.