“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”
“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”

Louis Keegan, Strategic Content Executive at Pluto, set out to understand the inner workings of AI and how it will affect influencer marketing.

There’s no doubt that AI is advancing rapidly and it’s going to change how we work in ways we can’t anticipate. With the release of Snapchats My AI and the eagerly awaited release of ChatGPT4, AI is going to further enhance our offline and online lives. Social platforms are only going to further integrate themselves with AI and AI assisted tools to greatly enhance the user experience for both consumers and brands alike."

While the regulators scramble to get a hold on AI, Content creators have already begun to play around with the possibilities of AI-solicited content. You only have to do a quick search on TikTok to see tutorials a plenty on how to leverage AI to create content faster and have it reach wider audiences. So, this begs the question, Is AI the way forward in Influencer Marketing?

AI is an immensely powerful tool with which many doors open that would otherwise be closed. When looking at the measurability of influencer campaigns there is no doubt that AI can streamline this process and help in the collection and interpretation of content metrics across fully integrated social media campaigns. Leading to more optimised and streamlined campaigns in the future. AI will make this process less of a time sink, much to the praise of the marketeer and client alike. AI’s ability to seamlessly handle an interpret back-end data is a huge aspect of what makes is so seductive.

ChatGBT and Advertising
ChatGBT and Advertising

As budgets tighten, timelines shorten and the inevitable attempts to sidestep the ever-dreaded three rounds of amends become more prevalent. The ability to leverage AI to create social media content at scale is something we will only see more of, but is this our future? I for one don’t think it is, in an area so historically obsessed with the authentic and real, it’s hard to believe that AI will ever replace real creator-led content. The ability for a creator to craft a piece of content unique to them and their platform is something to be protected. The capacity for an Influencer to create something that generates a real emotive human experience is something AI at present struggles to do. One only has look at the below example of how it handles comedy.

ChatGPT was asked to provide a comedic script for a TikTok promoting coffee.

Opening shot of a person yawning and rubbing their eyes, clearly in need of coffee.

Person: (yawning) "Ugh, I need coffee like I need air."

Cut to a shot of a coffee shop with a long line.

Person: "Why is there always a line? Is the coffee really that good?"

Barista: "Of course it is! It's like a hug in a mug."

Person: (sarcastically) "Ooh, a hug in a mug. That's exactly what I need."

Cut to a shot of the person walking out of the coffee shop with their coffee, taking a sip.

Person: (surprised) "Oh my God. This actually is like a hug in a mug. I take back everything I said."

Cut to a shot of the person walking down the street, feeling energized and happy.

Person: "Okay, I admit it. I'm a coffee addict. But hey, at least I'm not a morning person. That would be way worse."

Cut to a shot of the person walking into work, feeling confident and ready to take on the day.

Person: "Let's do this. Thanks, coffee."

"The above example highlights my issue with AI and its handle on the emotive and inherently subjective aspects of the human condition. It's an almost uncanny valley in written form. AI scripts are immediately identifiable and as a result, they stand out but not for good reason. Of course, this is all predicated on the individual crafting the prompts, but even with the most sophisticated inputs I feel AI’s purely logical algorithms fail to capture real human emotion. People after all act on emotion more than logic." says Louis.

"There exists a whole other debate around AI-generated and virtual influencers and personas like Lu Do Magalu and Miquela who have generated massive online followings. Again, I find these hypocritical when discussing influencer marketing which is used to deliver brands into the hearts and minds of consumers through lived experiences."

Louis continues, saying: "This is a discussion that will only increase with intensity as AI further advances and becomes more ingrained in the cultural zeitgeist. With the release of Bing’s own AI-powered by ChatGPT and Google’s Irish release of its home-brewed AI BARD (which I hear is somewhat lackluster) on the horizon, we can be sure to see others quickly following suit and releasing their own iterations of Artificial Intelligence. Influencer Marketing however, I feel is safe for the time being as we have no replacement for real human connection, nor should we want to! The future of AI is like AI itself, and ever-evolving. The possibilities and applications in time will be limitless. To quote the American artificial intelligence researcher Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky."