What Are AI Influencers? I Tried To make One (Heres whats happened)

Last updated on November 18th, 2025 at 12:46 pm

I can tell you the same thing because when I heard about AI influencers earning thousands of dollars, I did not believe it. Millions of followers of virtual people? Making real celebrity money? Yeah, right.

This is followed by the collaboration of Lil Miquela with Calvin Klein and Prada. That’s when it clicked. They are not just meaningless computer graphics. They are full-fledged online personas that have legitimate brand sponsorships and real earnings.

So I decided to test it myself. The following is what I discovered regarding AI influencers – and how I made the first one during the weekend.

What Exactly Are AI Influencers?

I should preface my experiment with the following deal: the AI influencers represent computerized potentials that behave as real individuals on social media. They share and engage with fans, and endorse brands but they are completely digital.

The difference? They do not require resting, holidays, or anxiety about scandals. Besides, the market is projected to reach 1.5 billion dollars by 2025 (Plus, 2025 the Rise of Virtual Persona, para. 3). That’s not pocket change.

Get Take a href=https://www.instagram.com/magazineluiza/ Lu do Magalu – she has 7.8 million Instagram followers, and has been marketing products with one of the Brazilian retailers since 2007. Or IKEA has partnered with Or a Japanese called imma.gram who has been featured in Vogue.

They are no longer experiments. They are valid promotional instruments.

My Experiment as an AI Influencer on Weekend.

I want to check whether it was possible to make something decent without spending money and having to learn complicated codes. Here’s exactly what I did.

Step 1 Preparation of My Character (30 Minutes)

What is the initial error that the majority make? In those times. Leaping to image generation. Don’t.

I took half an hour to plot the personality of my influencer:

• Name: Nova (felt futuristic, at the same time, it is not excessively excessive)
• Style: Despite minimistic style, the techno-focused traveler.
• Target market: 20-30 years to lifestyle digital nomads.
• Backstory: Explorer of the Internet, going virtual, writing about secret technology cafes in the world.

Very important is the backstory. It provides content direction and makes interactions needy.

Step 2: Came up with my own First Imagery (2 Hours of Trial and Error)

The tools that I applied are free and were available on GitHub: namely, Stable Diffusion on Google Colab. No installation needed.

This is what I had to experience:

Consistency is brutal. The initial 20 pictures resembled 20 different individuals. The same prompt, entirely different features. The trick? I was forced to narrow down certain facial features in my prompt:

• Oval face and dreamy dark-brown eyes and black shoulder-length hair and slight smile.
• Same description each and every time.

Lighting matters. It was easier to maintain consistency of the indoor shots as compared to the outdoor shots. The law of nature varies so widely among generations.

Hands are still a nightmare. When you are making AI influencer content, it is better not to show hands, or conceal them in the most natural way (with coffee cups in your hands, in your pockets). AI still struggles here.

I then obtained 10 useful pictures of what appeared to be the same individual after approximately 50 attempts.

Step 3: Establishing Social Presence (1 Hour)

I downloaded an Instagram app and uploaded 3 pictures with captions that I kept simple. Nothing glamorous – simple writing with the title Exploring Tokyo hidden tech scene.

After that, I relied on basic NLP tools, as the ones at learnartificialintelligence.ai/ai-courses/ai-in-advertising/ to assist me in writing what to comment. There is no need of advanced AI in this. Uncomplicated, cordial responses are good.

The goal wasn’t going viral. It was experimenting whether human beings were capable of making the distinction.

What Works (And Doesn’t): The Real Deal.

The Good Stuff:

Production of simple content is fairly achievable. It takes free tools and a weekend to build something that will look professional.

Brands are seeking AI influencers. The demand exists.

The monetization channels do exist: sponsored posts and affiliate links, paid material on sites such as Patreon. I discovered forums on Reddit where creators tell how they are earning more than 1,500 per day of their lives through various sources.

The Reality Check:

It is difficult to keep visual consistency without any paid tools. Really tough. Any new posting is a danger to the illusion.

Acquiring followers naturally is cumbersome. The fact that it is based on AI does not imply that Instagram and its algorithm will assist you. You still need strategy.

Ethical transparency is a complicated thing. I shared that Nova was an artificial intelligence creation, however, most developers do not. That just makes one an uncomfortable gray area.

Should You Try Creating One?

Here is my personal perspective on this experiment: in case you are interested in AI tools and you have some time to study it, do it. Its free material, a href=https:// www. coursejoiner.com/ free-udemy/ create-an-ai-influencer-no-code-free-free-course/ is good and you can use the skills you acquire in other places.

But in case you need a lot of money fast? Unrealistic, most likely, unless you are willing to give serious effort to content strategy, consistency and develop an actual audience.

The tech is real. The market is growing. However, it is not a money printer.

What surprised me most? I began to think of Nova as a personality and not pictures so fast. It was then that I realized the reason behind the attachment humans have towards AI influencers, despite their awareness of the fact that they are not real.

The distinction between online and real is more vaguely subjective than I believed.