Amid Rise of AI Influencers, Human Creators Still Drive Higher Instagram Engagement Rates

As global marketers try to understand how AI can help them optimize operations, leading creator marketing platform CreatorIQ today released a report highlighting the profound impact the technology is already having on the creator economy. The report examines both the rise of AI creators, as well as tactical implementations of technology to optimize creator discovery, activation, measurement, and more.

“We’re already seeing some companies test AI influencer partnerships, and human creators are experimenting with generative AI technologies in their content,” said Bhavin Desai, Chief Product Officer at CreatorIQ. “But AI influencers and synthetic media put to test the authenticity that makes creator marketing so impactful. From this research, we can tell that AI influencers can sometimes be effective in driving mass reach—especially when their content is banal—but the deep engagement that human creators inspire is generally not something we see AI replicating or surpassing.”

One of the most notable ways AI is impacting the creator economy is via computer-generated creators like Lil Miquela, Aitana Lopez, Noonoouri, and Imma Gram, who have amassed millions of followers and posted content highlighting BMW, Olaplex, Warner Music Group, Coach, and other brands. To provide a deeper understanding of how these brands are leveraging AI creators, CreatorIQ leveraged its industry-standard Earned Media Value (EMV) metric to identify top-performing campaigns from May 2023 to April 2024:

• Aitana Lopez’s post for Olaplex achieved $37.2k EMV, amassing 27.8k likes and 395 comments.
• Lil Miquela’s seven posts for BMW generated $168.5k EMV, 128.0k engagements, and 1.5M impressions.
• Imma Gram’s 17 mentions of Coach drove $32.4k EMV, 5.7k engagements, and nearly 200k impressions.
• Noonoouri’s 195 posts for her record label Warner Music Group inspired $1.1M EMV, 353.1k engagements, and 5.3M impressions.

While brands are experimenting with AI influencers, CreatorIQ’s analysis shows that human creators maintain an edge when it comes to metrics such as engagement rate. On Instagram, which 60% of marketers say drives the most ROI, human creators boast higher engagement rates than AI influencers:

• Aitana Lopez’s engagement rates for Instagram posts on Nike (2.4%), Fortnite (4.5%) and Patagonia (1.9%) all performed, on average, 1.03% below these brands’ respective creator communities.
• Lil Miquela’s seven posts for BMW averaged a 0.6% engagement rate compared to BMW creators’ 3.6% average.
• Imma Gram’s 17 posts for Coach averaged a 0.3% engagement rate, well below the 4.6% average seen for human creators posting about the brand.
• Noonoouri’s Instagram posts for Warner Music Group averaged a 1.4% engagement rate compared to the 3.3% rate averaged by human creators posting about the brand.

AI is also having a major impact on a variety of tactical elements within creator marketing campaigns. For example, in CreatorIQ’s 2023-2024 Creator Marketing Trends Report, 66% of brand respondents reported using AI for their daily tasks, with 42% using the technology for social media captions and 36% using it for ‘general brainstorming.’

Rather than replacing human creators with virtual influencers, CreatorIQ believes that leading companies should leverage AI to enhance the authenticity and trust at the heart of creator marketing. Using AI-backed technology, creator marketers can optimize for larger, more mission-central objectives while ensuring brand safety, including:

• Creator Discovery: AI-driven semantic searches and content aesthetics that can refine search criteria, speeding up the process and reducing costs by quickly finding better, safer, and more relevant creators.
• Campaign Collaboration: AI can streamline the campaign management process by matching structured briefs to creator content, leading to better-prepared creators and improved campaign performance.
• Predictive Measurement: Leveraging historical data, AI models can predict future outcomes with greater accuracy, simplifying planning and delivering enhanced campaign results.