Show AI influencers with real people

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Topic: Social Media | AI 
For: B2C
Research date: August 2026
Universities: University of Southern California, University of Bologna, University of Pennsylvania

📈 Recommendation

On average, human influencers generate more engagement than AI influencers. To make AI influencers more effective, show them interacting with real people in your posts (e.g. going for a “run together” to promote fitness clothing).

People will engage more and be more likely to choose the product the AI influencer is promoting.

🎓 Findings

• An image and text analysis of over 9500 AI influencer posts as well as 4 experiments found that:

  • Only 15% of AI influencer posts show them interacting with someone else

  • Posts with AI influencers having a social interaction receive 20.7% more engagement and on average 290 more likes or comments

  • People are up to 17.5% more likely to choose a product promoted by an AI influencer when the post includes them engaging with a real human being

• The effect:

  • Strengthens for less human-looking AI influencers (e.g. a Japanese anime-style character)

  • Disappears when:

    • There isn’t a social interaction (e.g. a person just standing next to the AI influencer)

    • When the social interaction is with another AI character

🧠 Why it works

• We know AI influencers can’t actually experience products in real life. So we see them as less trustworthy and authentic.

• When we see them doing things that humans do, it humanizes them, increasing our trust in them and making the post more impactful.

✋ Limitations

• It’s unclear if adding human-like features (e.g. them speaking or making live videos or showing emotions) to an AI influencer might also lead to a similar effect.

• There may be some situations (e.g. selling fantasy videogames) where an AI influencer being artificial may be helpful. In these contexts, people might prefer when influencers seem less realistic.

👀 Real-life example

Korean AI influencer rozy.gram has over 160K followers on Instagram.

❌ Issue: Her posts are mostly solo pictures without her interacting with anyone.

✅ Solution: Rozy.gram can make her page more effective by:

• Showing her interacting with other people (e.g. making a coffee for someone at a coffee shop or walking down the supermarket aisle with someone).

• Adding text overlays to her posts highlighting what she’s doing.

• Promoting innovative or tech-related products, as AI influencers make people more interested in buying these products than humans.

📖 Research

Rizzo, G. L. C., Ordenes, F. V. & Berger, J. What drives virtual influencers’ impact? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (August 2026).

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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