In today’s internet, it’s getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s AI-generated. AI is starting to take over everything from art and music to writing and even social media. One of the most surprising trends is the rise of AI influencers, virtual personalities that are taking over the online world. Let’s take a look at how they’re changing the way we interact online.
1. The Rise Of ‘Virtual Personalities’
Virtual influencers are taking the internet by storm. These computer-generated personalities are popping up everywhere, from Instagram to TikTok, and they’re not just for show, they’re gaining followers and landing major brand deals. Some people think these digital creations have the potential to become as influential as real-life celebrities, and they might be onto something…
2. Meet Aitana López
One of the most prominent virtual influencers on the internet today is Aitana López. She’s a 25-year-old model from Barcelona, Spain, and is known for her style, signature pink hair, and captivating online presence. She’s… also not a real person…
3. Making Atiana A Reality
Atiana is the brainchild of Rubén Cruz, the creative force behind The Clueless agency in Barcelona. Frustrated with the challenges of working with human models, Cruz turned to AI to craft a virtual influencer who could have the perfect blend of style, personality, and cultural impact. He meticulously designed Aitana to make sure she stands out in the crowded digital landscape.
4. The Posts Capturing Attention
Aitana’s Instagram is a vibrant mix of fashion-forward shots, fitness inspiration, and glimpses into her digital lifestyle. She often showcases trendy outfits, blending streetwear with high fashion, and shares workout routines that highlight her commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Not that a piece of code needs to take care of her health, to begin with.
5. An Engaging Personality
One of the things that makes Aitana stand out among other influencers, including real ones, is how often she engages with her audience. She regularly posts Q&As, replies to comments, posts polls, and keeps her audience in the loop about her life. She has a carefully crafted persona and it’s gaining her a lot of new fans who actually stick around.
6. Getting Brand Deals
Aside from just making posts about her life, Aitana also regularly makes posts showing off her favorite brands. Many of these posts happen to be sponsored. You can see her wearing lingerie from Victoria’s Secret, promoting the latest fitness supplements, and wearing the rarest designer outfits.
7. The ‘Other’ Fans
Aitana also regularly makes “exclusive” posts on some other websites that her fans can pay to see. These are usually not as safe for work as her usual content is, but it goes to show just the kind of markets AI influencers are venturing into.
8. The Lucrative World
According to reports, the company behind Aitana makes up to €10,000 a month through brand deals and sponsored posts on Instagram. This likely doesn’t include all of the extra posts she makes on platforms that are exclusively for her fans.
9. Why Brands Love Her
Brands are naturally drawn to Aitana. After all, she’s not a real person. She can’t make mistakes and won’t even go off the deep end like real celebrities tend to do. This makes her a safe personality that brands can invest their money into to promote their products.
10. The Fans
Now, Aitana is pretty transparent about not being a real person, and most of her fans are aware of that. But it’s easy to miss all the disclaimers, stumble across her profile, and think she might just be a real person after all. Her appearance is surprisingly realistic, and reading some of the comments on her posts, it seems like some people do think she’s real.
11. The Global AI Influencer Phenomenon
Aitana isn’t alone in this digital revolution. She’s among the ranks of countless other digital social media personalities created by different marketing companies. These digital influencers are, in ways, reshaping the entire digital landscape and may even slowly replace human influencers altogether. At least that’s what some critics are concerned about.
12. The World Of Lil Miquela
Much like Aitana, there has been another digital influencer taking over the world. Lil Miquela is quite a bit older than Aitana, she has been posting on Instagram since as far back as 2016. Unlike Aitana, who presents herself as a person, Lil Miquela is a robot who lives in LA. She was created by an LA-based marketing agency called Brud.
13. A Music Career
Lil Miquela is one of the few AI Influencers to actually branch out into other industries. She released her first single in 2017 titled “Not Mine”, and would go on to release half a dozen more. Some of her songs would reach millions of views on YouTube, and she would collaborate with other musicians like Lauv as well.
14. The Storylines
Even though AI influencers are supposed to be perfect beings, Lil Miquela just feels a lot more real. She has gotten into relationships, including with real men, and has subsequently had messy breakups with these men as her audience has watched it all unfold. Storylines like these became common for her account, and it made her audience even more invested in her account.
15. Joining The Celebrity World
Despite not being a real person, Lil Miquela has been seen around all sorts of other celebrities like Bella Hadid, 50 Cent, and Millie Bobby Brown. All of this gave her even more credibility as a real personality, and it also grew her brand value.
16. Interviewing Her Friends
The Lil Miquela persona has also been used to market other personalities. During Coachella, she interviewed Jay Balvin and took pictures with other celebrities. This gave exposure to the event, the celebrities, as well as Lil Miquela herself. It goes to show just how valuable she is as a marketing tool.
17. Gracing The Covers
In April 2018, Lil Miquela became the first AI Influencer to grace the cover of Highsnobiety magazine. She’s also been featured in a couple of other magazines, such as Paper and V. Some online publications have done entire interviews with her. The longer she sticks around, the more the entire persona grows.
18. The Car Ad
If all of her past achievements weren’t enough, in 2023, Lil Miquela became the first digital influencer to appear in a major TV advertisement. She became the star of the commercial for the new BMW iX2, and the ad was very well-received by both critics and audiences. It also marked a major milestone in getting AI personalities accepted into the mainstream.
19. Fashion Industry Takeover
AI Influencers like Lil Miquela and Aitana López are now being highly sought after in the fashion industry. Virtual models offer brands so much more freedom to be creative in ways they could never be before. Finding the perfect model is now just a click away from them, and even though this is making some real models uncomfortable, it’s getting the suits sitting in corporate offices really excited.
20. Taking Away Opportunities
Speaking of real models, they’re not exactly happy about the way things are turning out. Sure, while supermodels like Bella Hadid may still be safe, it’s the smaller, up-and-coming models that are concerned about virtual personalities taking away opportunities that would normally be for them. They have to compete against near-perfect beings in order to simply make a living.
21. Unrealistic Standards
A lot of people are also concerned about the type of message these AI influencers are setting. If you take a look at some of them, they’ll rarely have any flaws in their appearance like real people tend to have. They’ll be thin, have flawless skin, have curves in the right places, and won’t ever have to worry about aging or getting sick. It sets an unrealistic standard for real people to follow.
22. Audience Rejection
In light of all the controversy surrounding AI personalities, a lot of the internet is beginning to react negatively to anything relating to them. People want to interact with other people, they don’t want to interact with robots or elaborate marketing schemes. Many people feel that the whole AI thing is getting out of control, and digital influencers are just one part of it.
23. The Other Side
On the other hand, many people don’t see a problem with AI Influencers at all. Brands are clearly happy with them, they’re not taking away any important jobs, and they’re not harming anyone. Some people even prefer them to real influencers, who are often criticized for being pretentious, useless, and getting into too many scandals.
24. The Future
Whether you love them or hate them, one thing’s for sure, AI Influencers are here to stay. The technology behind it is still new and growing, and before we know it, it might just become the standard. It’s hard to predict how different the internet is gonna be with digital personalities potentially outgrowing real ones, and that’s concerning to a lot of people. But at the end of the day, it’s just something we’re gonna have to accept as a part of the internet.