AI Creator Economy: A Comprehensive Guide

Pew Research reports that that 90% of Americans are aware of AI and its evolving uses in daily life. Over the past few years, AI has entered many professions, including the creator economy. 

AI platforms can help brands and creators streamline the workflow and ease repetitive tasks. AI tech can write copy, generate photos, produce videos, crunch audience data, and automate chores. But these tools are constantly evolving to do much more. Let’s explore how AI is impacting the creator economy. 

Benefits of AI in the creator economy 

AI is revolutionizing the creator economy in a variety of ways:

Enhanced creativity 

By using AI platforms, influencers and brands can co-create content that’s more creative and eye-catching. Even photos can be enhanced to be more visually striking with AI.

Increased productivity

AI-generated content has limited production time. It is auto-generated in minutes based on prompts (or instructions) that you provide, so influencers don’t need to prep and shoot content. This can reduce production costs for both influencers and brands.

Personalization of content 

Brands and influencers can easily personalize content. Imagine an AI-generated picture of an influencer holding a virtual product. By altering the prompts, you can personalize the content. For instance, you can change the city skyline in the background to suit location-specific audiences. 

Content variety

With the right AI tools, brands and influencers can create images and videos that offer the variety needed to engage with audiences. 

Challenges and solutions of AI in the creator economy 

While AI offers numerous benefits to the creator economy, it also introduces challenges.

Challenge 1: Best practices for disclosure

Our Influencing AI research shows that 86% of consumers want to know when content is AI-generated. Since AI-generated content is new, best practices aren’t quite established yet. Some brands disclose it, others don’t. Some just aren’t sure how. 

Solution: Just as influencers are required to disclose their relationships with a brand by using #ad in a post description, the same applies to AI-generated content. In the post, use hashtags like #AIgenerated, #GenerativeAd, or #CreatedUsingAI. Ifa social media platform has a disclosure tool for AI, use it.

Some platforms, like FormAI, offer a disclosure engine to help brands maintain transparency with followers. 

Challenge 2: Content built on stereotypes

AI tools generate content by pulling from public sources, which means it can draw inspiration from culturally inappropriate sources.

Solution: All generative content should be thoroughly reviewed before its release. Consider how your audience will perceive the content and make changes if needed.   

AI and influencer marketing in the creator economy

AI has many applications in content creation and collaboration.

AI use cases in influencer marketing

While AI is still relatively new, it already has several applications within influencer marketing. Brands and creators can use AI to: 

• Brainstorm campaign ideas
• Generate a list of relevant hashtags to use
• Better define a target audience through predictive analysis 
• Write copy for a social media post
• Turn your campaign ideas into an influencer brief 
• Generate content; both images and video
• Create a list of tailored product recommendations for followers who engaged with influencer content 
• Develop a detailed campaign strategy, as our IZZY AI assistant does

How AI is changes the dynamics of influencer campaigns

While AI introduces many new elements to influencer marketing, one of the most significant is its ability to improve collaboration. 

In traditional influencer relationships, brands send an influencer a product, provide campaign direction, and receive one piece of content from the creator. The process has defined roles. 

With AI, brands and influencers can co-create. Both can utilize an AI platform to brainstorm ideas and generate content together. Each party can suggest changes to prompts to create content that’s on-point. Content creation becomes a team effort. 

AI statistics that exemplify its use in influencer marketing

Influencers are already using AI tools, and consumers are already embracing their presence. Our recent Influencer AI report offers these supporting statistics:

• 66.8% of influencers already use AI in their daily life. 
• Two of the most popular types of AI tools are writing assistants and image design tools. 
• 64% of all consumers 18-29 say that AI is better than the average human at creating images.

The future of AI in the creator economy 

Here’s what we can predict from artificial intelligence in the field:

Increased automation features

As AI advances, expect to see more automation available. For example, with the right prompts, AI tools can currently create copy for a social ad. In the future, AI could store your preferences, generate copy, and run ads for your brand. 

AI automation to whitelist influencer ads is likely on the horizon too. 

Predictive analytics improve

Brands are already using AI platforms to define their audience, but its abilities will only improve in the future. Expect to see more subsets pulled from audiences, leading to highly segmented audiences. With such data, you can fine-tune your influencer selection to increase results.  

Navigating the AI creator economy 

Here are tips for brands and creators on how to use AI platforms:

Consider what you need help with

How could AI help you accomplish everyday tasks? Make a list of your daily chores to help identify which tools you should explore. 

Get recs from colleagues

Talk with your peers. What are they using? Getting feedback is always a helpful starting point.

Weigh the cost

AI platforms can ease your workload, but like another other platform, fees are involved. Weigh a platform’s features and benefits against its cost. 

Take advantage of free trials

Many AI platforms offer a limited-time trial for free. Before you commit to a platform, try it first. 

AI is already impacting the creator economy. The introduction of AI platforms that can aid in the creation and execution of campaigns should streamline processes and reduce time commitments for both parties.