Here, our media buyer Ian Stewart discusses the pros and cons of advertisers using AI Virtual Influencers in ads.

I, like the majority of people, watch a lot of content on YouTube. I can be happily enjoying content but as soon as I detect that I’m watching AI, I immediately skip to the next video. It’s an instinctive reaction, it just feels, and looks, unnatural and icky! Normally, I find AI easy to spot, but what about when it’s not?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gY7jh345cas?feature=share

Known as either Synthetic Influencers or Virtual Influencers, we’re starting to see more and more of these AI ‘models’ in online advertising. With such a strong personal aversion to watching an AI human, you’d naturally expect me to be completely against the idea of using AI Influencers in advertising, but am I?

Actually, not necessarily.

There’s certainly some clear, and obvious, benefits for using a Virtual Influencer over a real person:

  • They are available 24/7.
  • They have a worldwide reach and you can have them speak multiple languages and can often tailor accents too.
  • They can provide assets for advertisers who aren’t able to use human influencers (eg timing, unable to find the right influencer, the influencer’s cost etc.)
  • Unlike sponsored social media influencers, brands have full control over voice, visuals and messaging.

So there are benefits, but are audiences accepting virtual influencers?

As long as the content is deemed to be valuable and entertaining, many Gen Z and Gen Alpha followers don’t mind if content is human or AI generated. In fact, some users prefer the transparency and perfection of virtual influencers compared to the world of filters used by many human influencers.

What about older audiences? Some mainstream brands have started to use virtual influencers for campaigns aimed at over the 18 to 24 demographic.

Brands such as Porsche and Vodafone, have launched virtual influencer campaigns in international markets. In the UK, Marks & Spencer have launched their own virtual influencer, called Mira. She has her own Instagram account in which she shares her “top fashion picks”. The account has over 4,000 followers.

Ultimately the numbers don’t lie. The AI Influencer Benchmark Report of 2023 stated that 60% of marketers surveyed were already integrating AI Influencers into their strategies and an additional 15.5% were considering it for the future. In addition, 49% reported a very positive experience.

A 2025 Columbia Business School report looked at more than 16 billion ad impressions and compared the performance of AI generated images vs human generated ones (ie real photography, CGI, digital art or illustration made by human designers) in terms of click through rate. They found that AI‐generated images can outperform human‐made ones in terms of click-through rate — but only when consumers don’t perceive them as ‘AI-made’. If the ad ‘looks like AI’, performance drops. This means, for an AI actor/avatar scenario, how convincingly ‘human-like’ they are, matters.

For many, AI is still a controversial topic, often associated with misinformation and fraud. As an advertiser, how do you get over that lack of authenticity and trust? These aren’t real people so the chances are, people won’t put their trust and confidence in your brand unless you can prove otherwise. Consumers are often already skeptical of advertising so to add AI into the mix, trust can be even harder to earn. If people know brands can fabricate reality, will they ever fully believe in a brand’s message again?

Is it even ethical to use an AI tool to make claims about your brand, product or service? If not disclosed, surely the use of AI can be considered deceptive, especially in the world of advertising? The problem is, when consumers are told the content is AI generated, they tend to respond less well compared to when it is undisclosed, so you can end up stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Ethics aside, the use of Virtual Influencers is clearly on the rise.

For local, quick turnaround campaigns, synthetic actors may offer a compelling ROI. But in a TV broadcast world, with high trust settings, the risk of consumer backlash or trust erosion is much higher. The evidence tells us that there is a time and place for synthetic actors; the key is knowing when and where to use them effectively.