The social media lifestyle can seem incredibly glamorous and appealing. It promises a life filled with non-stop jet-setting, traveling around the globe, meeting celebrities at high-profile events, top-dollar photoshoots and collaborations with renowned brands.
But as good as the life may look, behind the scenes it’s not always such a carefree existence. Even the most famous and most-followed influencers will admit that the constant traveling, juggling of tasks like non-stop content creation, negotiations with brands and engaging with followers quickly takes a toll.
The truth is, many social media stars can quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the enormity of everything that’s involved in maintaining their image and their stardom. The responsibilities can seem endless, leaving them with very little time to do anything but focus on their career.
That explains why there are so many web articles for social media influencers talking about tips for multitasking and managing their time more effectively. Instagram and TikTok stars can even purchase dedicated tools for improving their efficiency, and there’s the option to hire teams of workers in order to delegate some of their tasks.
But these solutions can only go so far. The reality for influencers is that their brand is their face, and their face can only be in so many places at once. Everyone, from the brands that sponsor them, to the people they meet and the loyal fans they interact with, wants to see the real deal, and for many it can seem impossible to please them all.
Buy Time By Replicating Yourself
Fact is, you can’t buy any more time than there already is in the day. But what if that wasn’t true? What if you could instead create a replica or a mirror image of yourself that could handle everything you need to do, exactly as you’d do it? Wouldn’t that give you a workaround – a way to cheat and buy yourself more time?
With the emergence of AI twins, otherwise known as AI avatars, becoming increasingly lifelike and realistic, such a possibility is becoming a reality. These days, digital social media influencers are becoming a viable solution for overworked social media stars, helping them to create and distribute high-quality content, engage with fans and reduce some of the load.
Digital twins are AI-powered virtual agents capable of emulating human social media influencers in various ways, such as by producing content, engaging with fans in conversation and representing brands in a way that the real human would. They’re developed using sophisticated algorithms and massive datasets, allowing them to replicate both the look and behavior of the influencer they’re designed to replicate.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that this is not some kind of futuristic technology. The opposite is true – it’s already mature, with companies like Antix, JustBanter, Twin Protocol and MiniMe AI all offering dedicated platforms for AI avatar creation, competing with more established brands like Meta Platforms, which recently unveiled similar tools for Instagram influencers.
What Can An AI Avatar Do?
Antix’s Avagen platform is especially interesting in that it combines advanced image recognition and natural language understanding algorithms with blockchain technology to enable users to completely own humanlike AI avatars capable of displaying genuine emotions and performing multiple actions.
The company has put a lot of effort into the versatility of its AI avatars, specifically with social media influencers in mind. One of its main use cases is for its avatars to engage with fans over chat platforms, so they can respond to almost any question in the same way as the real human influencer would.
Influencers will need to take time to train their AI avatars first, but it’s an investment in eventual time savings, as the more they interact with it, the more like themselves it will become, meaning it can provide greater realism for their followers. Antix employs machine learning to help its AI avatars understand the context of the conversations they have with followers, so they can interact as real humans would, creating the impression that the user is talking to a real-world person. It’s a far cry from the robotic responses of first-generation AI chatbots.
In addition to fan engagement, AI avatars can be designed to produce content such as videos and social media posts, and they can adapt their tone and style to suit the guidelines of different brand sponsors. This enables influencers to use their AI avatars in targeted audience engagement, ensuring that their AI-generated content resonates.
Benefits… And Risks
By creating an AI replica, social media stars benefit from having more time on their hands so they can focus on the aspects of their work that appeals the most, whether that’s heading out to glitzy events or going to photoshoots. They can assist with every aspect of their work, whether it’s scheduling appearances at events, editing images and videos, brokering agreements with sponsors and more.
They can also use AI to improve their own personal branding and make it more consistent. By having an AI replica of themselves appear online in their stead, influencers can present a more coherent image that aligns with their reputation and meets their fans’ expectations. They’ll always have fresh and eye-catching content ready to post to boost the number of visitors they’re getting, and they’ll be able to respond to fans at all hours of the day, while they sleep and go out and meet and greet with their peers at social events.
Of course, it’s important to remember that AI technology can be somewhat controversial, and so influencers need to be careful how and when they use it. There will be many situations where nothing but the real version of you will suffice, and they must remember that some perceive AI-generated content as being not genuine, which can erode trust among sections of their followers.
There’s also the potential for AI to go wrong. While uncommon, incidents such as this one, where an influencer’s AI clone suddenly became all too willing to engage in sexualized conversations with her fans, even though that was never the intention. That’s not to say influencers should avoid using the tech, but they do need to keep a close eye on it to ensure standards and quality are maintained.
Every Influencer Will Have An AI Avatar
While tools like Antix and Meta AI do streamline the process of creating an AI avatar and make them accessible to anyone, influencers should be aware that they’ll need to invest a significant amount of time in doing so. After all, their avatars need to get to know them first to mirror their personality, as that’s essential for them to deliver realistic engagements with fans.
But given the time constraints faced by many social media influencers, we think it’s a trend that’s almost certainly going to accelerate in the years to come. The adoption of AI avatars is growing fast, and every day new creators are looking at these tools to help reduce the burden on their shoulders and buy themselves more time.
