Know about the advantages of AI influencers in 2021

The year 2021 is important because even with the time left one can expect greater presence and visibility of digital influencers not just coming up but ‘competing’ with their human counterparts in brand promotion through advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence. Just like, social media influencers, beauty influencers, influencers who are involved with the promotion of AI products and services are known as AI influencers in 2021.

With the cutting-edge competition in brand promotion activities, the influencers, in general, are gaining increasing attention in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. Before citing the factors responsible for this development, let it be conveyed that the influencers are so-called because of the ability to influence potential buyers of products and/or services by promoting the items on social media. But there is a lot of fluidity about who the influencers are and how they act. There is, in other words, no unanimously accepted criterion/criteria of ‘influencer’ and it very much remains an evolving concept and process. The degree to which such fluidity can go has already become evident in the emergence of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and one of the most prominent influencers, Yumi. She is the world’s first automated digital skincare advisor. One can, as she assures the public, can chat with her anytime any place like a chatbot. Totally dedicated to the brand she promotes Yumi is as human as a human being. Obviously, when it comes to the influencers in the AI domain there are human elements too.

Why this expectation? There are some major factors involved in this. There are several advantages to digital influencers or AI influencers. First, they not only look but also act like human beings. With AI as the guiding force, it is very difficult to distinguish between a human being and a digital avatar. Second, the digital influencer speaks what is being tutored by the mentors. There is no departure from the taught messages. Third, their brand loyalty is inviolable as they are thoroughly controlled. The last two issues are not so tight with human influencers. A human influencer can speak something else than what has been advised by the mentors. It may also lead to some controversies or debates in society, not necessarily conducive to brand promotion activities. Also, human influencers can shift loyalty when needed and there is no means to bind them forever to a particular brand. Not least, the digital influencers or AI influencers are much less costly than their human counterparts. This cost-effective dimension is also an important factor leading to their increasing visibility.

This does not of course mean that the current year announces that the days of human influencers are coming to an end. A stellar line-up of human influencers, according to one list, includes names like Ande Fitz, the Co-Founder, and CIO of Swiss Cognitive, Maria Luciana Axente of PWC-UK, Nazarine Ibrahim, Founder and CEO of Naz Consulting, Sailendra Kuman, the data science business entrepreneur, Ganapati Pulipaka, the Chief AI HPC Scientist at Accenture. Katie King, CEO of AI in Business and also a member of the UK Government All-Party Parliamentary Task Force for the enterprise adoption of AI. This is not the only list and they are not obviously the only ones around. The value addition provided by human influencers lies in their extraordinary ability to steer conversations to the desired end identified and preferred by the brands. Meanwhile, AI influencers are thriving in the global tech market such as Lil Miquela with a full name, Miquela Sousa. She is a hundred percent fully programmed with artificial intelligence and has around 1.5 million followers on Instagram whereas there is a 22-year old Korean AI influencer, Rozy, Lil Wavi, Ronnie Blawko, and many more.

When influencers are expected to drive value and success for tech/beauty and other products and services, both the digital or AI influencers and human types will be utilized. Who will utilize which category will depend on the specific needs in some specific situations? This year has already made the point clear and it will continue to be so for the months left.