Guide: AI in business › AI in marketing, advertising and content
An AI influencer is a virtual character running social media profiles whose appearance, photos and videos, and often its copy too, are created by artificial intelligence, with a team of people behind it deciding what the character says and whom it works with. For a brand it can be a cheaper, fully controlled face for a campaign. But it can also attract accusations of artificiality, and from 2 August 2026 a realistic likeness of such a character must be labelled. Below we explain how it works, what it costs and which rules apply, as well as when an AI influencer makes sense and when you are better off with a real person.
In 60 seconds Virtual influencer in a minute
- Who it is: a virtual character with a social media profile, created by AI and run by a team of people who are responsible for its message.
- Which brand it suits: one that needs a consistent, controlled face across many channels and has the budget to build reach over the long term. Less often for brands built on authenticity.
- Where the cost lies: not in the image generator, but in the team that spends many months writing scripts, producing material, running the profile, moderating comments and keeping things legal.
- First test: test on a few pieces of content whether audiences will accept a character that is not human before a whole profile is built.
- Risks: labelling of advertising (UOKiK) and of realistic likenesses (AI Act), accusations of manipulation and the lack of experience the character could honestly draw on in a recommendation.
What is an AI influencer?
AI influencer (w wersji żeńskiej często „AI influencerka”, a w liczbie mnogiej po prostu influencerki AI) to postać, która nie istnieje fizycznie, ale prowadzi profil w mediach społecznościowych jak prawdziwy twórca, czyli publikuje zdjęcia i filmy, komentuje cudze wpisy, współpracuje z markami. Jej wygląd, a często także głos i teksty, powstają z pomocą AI, ale o tym, co postać mówi, jakie ma poglądy i z kim współpracuje, decyduje zespół ludzi. W wyszukiwarce ludzie wpisują to raz jako „AI influencer”, raz jako „influencer AI”, ale chodzi o to samo zjawisko.
Three phenomena are often confused. A virtual influencer is a character with its own “biography” and an independent profile. A brand avatar belongs to one company and speaks only on its behalf, a bit like a mascot, only more modern. Deepfake is a forged likeness of a real person and has nothing to do with marketing; we have covered it separately in our article Deepfake: what it is.
The phenomenon isn’t new. Lil Miquela was created in 2016 by the American studio Brud and, according to the European Youth Portal, has 2.5 million followers on Instagram; the only new thing is that today’s tools make it possible to create such a character with a much smaller team than a decade ago. Virtual creators are one of many threads we pull together in our guide to artificial intelligence in business.
What can we learn from examples of virtual influencers?
The most frequently cited European example is Aitana López, a virtual influencer created by the Spanish agency The Clueless. As Euronews reports, her creator Rubén Cruz came up with her when the agency was losing jobs because of unreliable models and influencers. According to the agency, the character earns around €3,000 a month on average, with a record of €10,000, and gained more than 343,000 followers in eighteen months. This is the creators’ own claim, not an independent measurement. Treat it as such.
Ciekawsza od liczb jest metoda. Zespół co tydzień ustala, co postać robi i gdzie „bywa”, a graficy łączą AI z ręczną obróbką w programach graficznych. Cruz mówi wprost, że ludzie „śledzą życie, a nie obrazy”, dlatego postać dostała szczegółowy charakter i zainteresowania; AI produkuje obraz, ale influencer marketing wciąż stoi na opowieści pisanej przez ludzi.
According to the same Youth Portal, the largest virtual profile in the world is the Brazilian character of the Magazine Luiza chain, with 7.2 million Instagram followers. It is an example of a brand avatar rather than an independent creator, because from the outset the character has spoken on behalf of a single company.
| Criterion | AI influencer / brand avatar | Real influencer |
|---|---|---|
| Control over messaging | full, the character says what the team decides | partial, the creator has their own voice and opinions |
| Risk of a personal scandal | no private life that could harm the brand | exists |
| Authenticity of recommendations | low, the character has not used the product | high, if the creator genuinely uses the product |
| Time to build reach | long, starting from zero | short, the brand taps into an existing community |
| Legal obligations | labelling of advertising and of realistic AI-generated images | labelling of advertising |
| Availability | always, in many languages and channels | depends on the creator’s schedule |
Who is an AI influencer right for, and in what situation?
In marketing, an AI influencer works best where the product is digital and audiences are used to virtual characters, for example in gaming, technology, digital fashion or campaigns aimed at younger audiences. It also makes sense as a permanent brand avatar serving many markets and languages for a company that does not want its image to depend on a single person.
It is a poorer fit for sectors where recommendations rest on experience: food, cosmetics, health, finance. A character that has never eaten, never used a face cream and never taken out a loan cannot honestly say “I recommend it because I’ve tried it”. In B2B communication a virtual influencer will rarely replace a named expert, because what counts there is personal brand of real people.
How to create an AI influencer for your brand, step by step
How do you create an AI influencer that doesn’t end up as an eye-catching profile with no followers? The order of the steps matters more than the tools.
- STEP 01Goal and metric
Write down why the brand needs the character: reach in a new group, a permanent face for campaigns, serving multiple markets. Also decide how you will measure the effect (enquiries, channel sales, awareness in a survey), because follower numbers alone prove nothing.
- STEP 02Personality, not just looks
Describe the character like the lead in a TV series, with interests, a way of speaking, off-limits topics and an attitude to the brand. Decide whether it is an independent creator or an openly declared company avatar. The second option is more honest and safer.
- STEP 03Rules for appearance and labelling
Write down a fixed description of the character’s appearance so that it doesn’t change its face between posts (these are the same consistency rules we describe for AI-generated graphics and logos), and decide how it will be labelled as AI-generated. Put the label in the profile bio and in every post that shows a realistic likeness.
- STEP 04Small-scale test
Before you build a profile, show the character in a few pieces of content on the brand’s existing channels and read the comments. Curiosity or dislike? A test like this costs less than withdrawing the whole project.
- STEP 05Team and moderation
Decide who writes the scripts, who produces the material, who replies to comments and who approves collaborations. The character is active every day, so without a permanent team the profile quickly dies.
- STEP 06Measurement and a decision after one quarter
Compare the results with a campaign featuring a real creator or with a baseline period. If the character doesn’t deliver, close the project rather than keeping it going out of habit.
Jak Commwork®AI sprawdza, czy wirtualna postać pracuje na markę
Wirtualna postać publikuje codziennie, więc sygnały o jej odbiorze przychodzą szybciej, niż zespół zdąży je przeczytać. Commwork®AI zbiera komentarze, zapytania i sprzedaż z kanałów postaci w jednym kokpicie, a zespół Commplace® zamienia je w plan poprawek. Decyzję, czy projekt prowadzić dalej, zawsze podejmuje człowiek.
- Building reach 34%
- Image and video production 24%
- Profile management and moderation 22%
- Koncepcja i charakter 10%
- Prawo i pomiar 10%
- 2.08.2026Art. 50 AI Act: ujawnianie realistycznych wizerunków z AI
- Week 2Cel, miara i opis charakteru postaci
- Week 4Test postaci w kanałach marki
- Week 7Start osobnego profilu z oznaczeniami
- Week 12Porównanie z okresem bazowym i decyzja
- IV kw. 2026Zapowiadany projekt Digital Fairness Act
- 01Diagnoza odbiorców
- 02Small-scale test
- 03Zasady i oznaczenia
- 04Prowadzenie profilu
- 05Pomiar po kwartale
- Łączy dane z kanałów społecznościowych, unikalnych linków i systemu klientów w jeden rachunek od kliknięcia do zapytania, więc widzisz, czy postać sprzedaje, a nie tylko zbiera polubienia.
- Śledzi nastroje w komentarzach, a przy nagłym wzroście negatywnych wzmianek ocenia powagę sytuacji, zwołuje zespół i przygotowuje oświadczenie do podpisu człowieka.
- Odejmuje sezon i sprawdza wynik grupą porównawczą, zanim ktoś nazwie wzrost sukcesem postaci. Jak czytać sygnały z sieci, opisaliśmy przy AI media monitoring.
The view reproduced is modeled after the dashboards provided to customers. The names, numbers, and terms are examples and show the way the system works, not the results of a specific company.
How much does an AI influencer cost and what drives the budget?
The popular story goes that an AI influencer is cheaper than a human because it “doesn’t charge a fee”. In reality, the costs simply shift from the creator’s fee to the work of the team that keeps the character going every day. There are no reliable public price lists, so instead of figures we list the factors.
Hasło „AI influencer zarobki” wpisuje w wyszukiwarkę sporo osób, tylko że z perspektywy marki ważniejszy jest koszt po Twojej stronie. Jedyna publiczna kwota w tym tekście to deklarowane przez twórców Aitany López około 3000 euro miesięcznie, a to przychód agencji, nie budżet, który wyda firma. Twój rachunek złożysz z pozycji w tabeli poniżej i dopiero wtedy porównasz go z kosztem dotarcia przez ludzi.
Chcesz policzyć te pozycje dla swojej marki, zanim wydasz pierwszą złotówkę na produkcję? Zespół social media Commplace przygotuje test na małej skali i rachunek porównawczy z prawdziwymi twórcami.
| Item | What it depends on | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Concept and personality of the character | number of markets, audience groups, languages | the most important and most often overlooked |
| Image and video production | posting frequency, realism, formats | AI tools plus manual image editing |
| Profile management and moderation | number of channels, community activity | daily work, weekends included |
| Building reach | starting point (zero followers), paid advertising | usually the biggest cost in the first year |
| Legal checks and labelling | sector, markets, type of partnerships | AI Act, UOKiK, platform rules |
| Measurement | control group, awareness survey | without it, you do not know whether the project pays off |
Labelling ads and AI content from a virtual influencer
A virtual character is subject to the same rules as a real creator, plus the regulations on AI content. Here are the most important ones as of September 2026.
- Labelling advertising. The recommendations issued by the President of UOKiK (the Polish competition and consumer protection authority) on 26 September 2022 call for clear labels, e.g. #reklama or #materiałreklamowy, at the start of the post, in Polish, and for “two-level” labelling: using the platform’s feature and in the content itself. They apply to every commercial partnership, and therefore to virtual characters as well.
- Labelling realistic AI-generated images. From 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the AI Act requires the disclosure of deepfakes, i.e. realistic images, audio or video recordings that imitate real people or events. A photorealistic character that audiences might take for a human should be clearly described as generated. You will find the details in our guide to labelling AI content and in the overview The AI Act in Poland.
- Platform rules. Since at least 2023, TikTok has required realistic AI content to be labelled, and since 9 May 2024 it has automatically labelled content carrying Content Credentials metadata (a digital “certificate of origin” for a file). Since July 2024, Meta has used an “AI info” label on content detected as generated.
- What comes next. The European Commission has announced a draft Digital Fairness Act for Q4 2026, which is set to cover, among other things, marketing carried out by influencers.
When a virtual character harms a brand
The biggest risk is to reputation, not a legal one. Audiences react ever more sharply to content they consider “artificial”, and in December 2025 the Polish brand Dafi withdrew an advert generated entirely by AI after a wave of criticism, as we described in our piece on AI advertising and big brands’ blunders. It is much the same with a virtual character. The scale is simply bigger, because the character “speaks” every day.
The second risk is accusations of manipulation when the character recommends a cosmetic it has never used or talks about experiences it has not had. The third is a crisis in the comments that the team is not ready for. How to prepare for this is covered in our guide to AI in crisis communication, while we discuss the ethical boundaries in our article on AI risks and ethics.
How to measure the impact of working with an AI influencer
Follower and like counts are not enough. Virtual profiles are easy to “pump up” with paid advertising, and reactions driven by curiosity do not translate into sales. Measure the same things as in any influencer collaboration: traffic from unique links and codes, the number of enquiries, sales, plus the change in awareness in a survey before and after the campaign.
Zbieżność to nie wpływ. Jeśli sprzedaż rośnie w czasie kampanii z postacią, zestaw ją z tymi samymi tygodniami poprzedniego sezonu albo z rynkiem, na którym postaci nie było, bo dopiero wtedy odróżnisz efekt postaci od zwykłego sezonu. Śledź też nastroje w komentarzach. Przewaga zarzutów o „sztuczność” to sygnał ostrzegawczy, który pojawia się, zanim spadną wyniki. Te wskaźniki najłatwiej czytać razem, w jednym widoku. My zbieramy je w kokpicie Commwork®AI, który łączy dane z kanałów społecznościowych, unikalnych linków i systemu klientów.
Lista kontrolna i plan na pierwsze 90 dni z wirtualną postacią
Próg decyzji ustal przed startem, nie po fakcie. Może brzmieć tak: jeśli po 90 dniach jedno zapytanie z kanału postaci kosztuje więcej niż z dotychczasowej współpracy z twórcami, a w komentarzach przeważają zarzuty „sztuczności”, zamykasz projekt. Liczby do progu weź z historii własnych kampanii. Wiarygodnych publicznych benchmarków dla wirtualnych postaci po prostu nie ma.
Jeśli postać ma prowadzić agencja, zadaj jej kilka prostych pytań. Kto konkretnie pisze scenariusze i odpowiada na komentarze w sobotę wieczorem? Jak zapewnicie, że postać wygląda tak samo w każdym poście? Jak wygląda u was oznaczanie treści AI i reklam na każdej platformie? Z czym porównacie wynik po kwartale? Do kogo należą prawa do postaci po zakończeniu umowy? Odpowiedź „zobaczymy w trakcie” to sygnał, żeby szukać dalej. Gdy postać ma być częścią szerszej kampanii wizerunkowej, te same pytania dotyczą całego planu, nie tylko profilu.
Zanim zamówisz pierwszy obraz, przejdź przez krótką listę. Jeśli na któreś pytanie odpowiadasz „nie wiem”, projekt nie jest gotowy. Wirtualni influencerzy uruchomieni bez przygotowania częściej kończą jako porzucone profile niż jako twarze kampanii.
- Czy potrafisz jednym zdaniem powiedzieć, po co marce postać i czym zmierzysz jej efekt?
- Czy masz opisany charakter postaci, tematy zakazane i gotową odpowiedź na pytanie „czy jesteś prawdziwa?”
- Czy wiesz, kto codziennie produkuje materiały, moderuje komentarze i zatwierdza współprace?
- Czy oznaczenie reklamy i wizerunku z AI jest wpisane w szablon każdej publikacji, a nie zostawione pamięci zespołu?
- AI influencer a prawo to nie tylko oznaczenia. Czy prawnik sprawdził umowy z wykonawcami i prawa do wyglądu, głosu oraz nazwy postaci?
- Czy masz okres bazowy albo rynek porównawczy, żeby po kwartale odróżnić efekt postaci od sezonu?
When to choose an AI influencer and when to stick with people?
A virtual character makes sense when the brand has a digital product or younger audiences, needs a consistent face across many countries, has the patience to build reach over many months and is prepared to label the character openly. A good moment is the launch of a new product line or entry into a new market, when you are building communication from scratch anyway.
Stick with people when the brand relies on authenticity and craftsmanship or on personal experience, when you need results within a few weeks, or when you don’t have a team to run the profile day to day. Nor is a virtual character a way around the rules on labelling advertising. The same rules apply to it.
A combination often works best: real creators for recommendations and experiences, and AI for producing variants and adaptations. How to build a consistent image in social media. If you want to assess whether a virtual character suits your brand and audience, take a look at the Commplace social media service.
Where brands stumble with virtual characters
When audiences find out, accusations of manipulation and a crisis in the comments follow. And from 2 August 2026 a realistic AI-generated likeness has to be disclosed anyway.
The character “recommends” a product it could not have used. This undermines the brand’s credibility and may be deemed misleading.
The recommendations of UOKiK (Poland’s consumer protection authority) apply to every commercial post, including one by a virtual character. You risk proceedings and a loss of trust.
The character needs daily content and moderation, and a profile abandoned after a few weeks stays online as evidence of the brand’s failed experiment.
Reach can be bought. Sales can’t. Without a comparison group, the brand pays for the character without knowing whether it changed anything.
Without a fixed description of its appearance, the generator produces a slightly different face with every post, audiences stop recognising the character and the image you have built falls apart.
Questions brands ask us about AI influencers
What is an AI influencer?
An AI influencer is a virtual character with a social media profile whose appearance and content are created by artificial intelligence under the direction of a team of people. It posts, comments and even works with brands like a real creator, but it does not physically exist and cannot personally test the products it recommends.
How much does an AI influencer earn?
There is no independent market data. The most frequently cited example, Spain’s Aitana López, earns around €3,000 a month on average according to her creators, with a record of €10,000. This is the agency’s claim, not a verified measurement.
Does an AI influencer have to be labelled?
Yes, in two ways. Commercial collaborations are labelled like any influencer advertising, in line with the recommendations of UOKiK (Poland’s consumer protection authority). A realistic likeness that audiences could take for a real person must, from 2 August 2026, be disclosed as generated under Article 50 of the AI Act.
How do you create an AI influencer?
Start with the goal and how you will measure it, then describe the character’s personality, its fixed appearance and the labelling rules, and before building a separate profile, test the character in a few pieces of content on the brand’s existing channels. Finally, make sure you have a team for day-to-day running and moderation.
Is an AI influencer cheaper than a real one?
Not always. You don’t pay a creator’s fee, but you do pay for the concept, production, the day-to-day running of the profile and building reach from scratch. A real creator gives you access from day one to a community that already trusts them.
Who is Lil Miquela?
Lil Miquela is one of the first and best-known virtual influencers, created in 2016 by the American studio Brud. According to the European Youth Portal, she has 2.5 million followers on Instagram. She has worked with fashion brands, among others.
Is an AI influencer the same as a deepfake?
No. An AI influencer is a new, invented character, whereas a deepfake is a forged likeness of an existing person, usually made without their consent. The only thing they have in common is that realistic AI-generated material must be labelled from August 2026 if it could mislead the audience.
Sources
- SOURCE
- SOURCEEuronews: Meet the Spanish AI model earning up to €10,000 a month · 22 November 2023, updated 27 December 2024
- SOURCEFortune: The Clueless agency made AI model Aitana · 23 November 2023
- SOURCERecommendations of the President of UOKiK on the labelling of advertising content by influencers (overview) · recommendations of 26 September 2022
- SOURCE
- SOURCEEuropean Commission: transparency obligations under Article 50 of the AI Act · accessed 24 September 2026
- SOURCE
- SOURCE
- SOURCEMeta: Our Approach to Labeling AI-Generated Content and Manipulated Media (with updates) · April 2024, updated July and September 2024
- SOURCEEuropean Parliament, Legislative Train: Digital Fairness Act · accessed 24 September 2026
- SOURCENowyMarketing: Dafi advert triggers a wave of negative comments · 4 December 2025
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Sebastian Kopiej, President of Commplace®. In public relations since 1996. Text prepared with the help of AI tools and fact-checked by the author. Data current as of September 29, 2026.