Are virtual influencers – AI-generated entities that promote products just like their human counterparts – actually effective endorsers? In this seminal article published in the Journal of Advertising on virtual influencers, the authors say yes…that is, until a misstep arises. In one experiment, people read about a brand that signed either a virtual influencer or an up-and-coming celebrity. With no scandal, both endorsers left people feeling equally good about the brand. When the endorser posted a politically incorrect tweet, the brand took a hit either way. The real difference showed up in the cleanup. When the brand replaced its offending virtual influencer with a celebrity, people liked the brand more and saw it as acting more responsibly than when it swapped in a new virtual influencer. Replacing one virtual influencer with another did no better than doing nothing at all. Why? In a smaller preliminary study, people saw virtual influencers as more interchangeable than celebrities, and thought a new virtual influencer was more likely to repeat the same mistake. In other words, one virtual influencer’s slip can look like a flaw in all of them.

Source: Thomas, V. L., & Fowler, K. (2021). Close encounters of the AI kind: Use of AI influencers as brand endorsers. Journal of Advertising, 50(1), 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2020.1810595