The news: AI’s role in the creator economy is rapidly evolving for influencers and marketers alike, according to an Influencer Marketing Factory report.

• Creators increasingly rely on AI for content creative. Around one-quarter (24.7%) use AI for editing content, while 21% do for idea generation and 17.2% for script and caption writing.
• They rely less heavily on AI for analytics and insights (16.7%) and automation purposes (12.3%).
• Marketers, meanwhile, are using AI in the majority of their workflows, CEO of HypeAuditor Alexander Frolov noted. AI is helping with tasks like finding and analyzing creators, testing campaign messages, and forecasting performance.
• Spending on AI-assisted and generated creator content is growing. Seventy-nine percent of marketers plan to increase spending on genAI creator content this year, up from 70% in 2023. Seventy-six percent expect that AI will grow creator economy ad spending.

The marketing advantage: Marketers are leveraging AI across channels to streamline workflows, accelerate production, and drive more predictable results. Nearly two-thirds (66.4%) say that AI has at least somewhat improved their influencer marketing outcomes, per Influencer Marketing Hub, while only 6.1% say it has worsened outcomes.

Marketers cite factors like time savings in campaign management (23.6%), content creation (23.2%), and enhanced performance tracking (16%) as key benefits of using AI in influencer marketing.

Issues remain: AI’s proliferation across marketing strategies doesn’t negate some key issues creators and marketers still face.

• AI governance is lacking. Creators and marketers still want more guidelines to address legal frameworks and copyright issues, leading to some brands limiting creators’ genAI use.
• Creators are concerned that they will lose control of their personal brand when licensing AI avatars. Others fear they will be taken advantage of by platforms using their content to train AI models.
• Audience attitudes remain a barrier. Fifty-six percent of internet users worry that AI will make online content less trustworthy or reliable, per EY.
• Consumers feel increasingly negative about AI’s role in the creator economy, with nearly one-third seeing it as a negative disruptor, per Billion Dollar Boy. Fewer consumers feel positively about its role than they did in 2023.

Implications for marketers and creators: Finding a balance between AI’s growing role in the creator economy and lingering concerns will be critical to sustaining trust and long-term growth. Applying AI to backend functions like editing and campaign forecasting allows marketers and creators to improve efficiency while avoiding trust and compliance pitfalls.

Influencer marketing that centers on creators and their perspectives is especially well suited to AI-enabled workflows, since its human focus preserves authenticity—even if AI supports the process behind the scenes.