- AI influencers offer brands cost-effective digital reach, replacing nano/micro creators.
- Brands like Manforce and Vadilal now utilize AI personas for marketing campaigns.
- AI influencer creation costs have significantly decreased, making them attractive.
Brands across India are quietly reshuffling their influencer marketing spends. AI-generated personalities are stepping in where nano and micro creators once stood, offering similar digital reach at a fraction of the cost. Condom brand Manforce named an AI model, Myra Kapoor, as its brand ambassador. Ice-cream maker Vadilal has a mascot called Vaddy that blends human and AI elements. Jewellery brand CaratLane ran a campaign with AI influencer Kyra.
As synthetic influencers grow in number, though, human creators with real audience trust are finding themselves more valuable than ever, and getting paid accordingly.
How AI Influencers Are Replacing Nano & Micro Creators In India
The economics behind this shift are straightforward. Nano and micro influencers, those with under 100,000 followers, built their appeal on affordable reach. An AI character now delivers similar results for even less money, and the cost keeps dropping.
According to a report by influencer marketing agency Zefmo Media released last week, AI influencers are expected to take up 25-35% of nano and micro creator budgets in India by 2027. The same report estimates India’s influencer marketing industry at over Rs 10,000 crore, nearly three times the 2024 industry estimate of Rs 3,375 crore.
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The cost of building an AI influencer has also fallen sharply. A brand-ready AI influencer that cost up to Rs 3.6 crore to build in 2022 can now be created for around Rs 26 lakh.
Once built, the brand owns the character outright and can run it across campaigns, languages, and platforms without paying any recurring talent fees.
Why Human Creators Are Commanding Higher Fees As AI Content Grows
While AI is taking over the lower end of the market, the top is moving in the opposite direction. The Zefmo Media report predicts that elite human creator fees may rise by 25-35% by 2027.
“As AI floods the low end, genuine authenticity becomes a scarce asset. The handful of creators who own real trust and taste can charge more for it. Authenticity is becoming a luxury good,” said Shudeep Majumdar, co-founder and chief executive officer at Zefmo Media. “The more synthetic content the market produces, the more a brand will pay for a human the audience actually believes.”
Arsh Goyal, a tech and AI creator with around half a million followers, estimates that AI creator rates are falling 5-10% each month. He notes that while human creators charge more due to the scarcity of their output, AI creator rates are dropping because making that content feel authentic and relatable remains the real challenge.
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Abhishek Razdan, co-founder and chief executive officer of Avtr Meta Labs, the creator of AI influencer Naina, which has worked with brands such as Oppo, Kotak, and Sofy, said brands are now treating AI influencers as a long-term strategy. “Earlier, AI influencers were mostly seen as a PR experiment. Today, brands are at least open to discussing them as part of a longer-term content or communication strategy,” he said.
Talent agencies are also adapting. Neel Gogia, co-founder and chief executive officer of influencer marketing firm IPLIX Media, said agencies will soon operate two separate rosters, one for human creators and one for AI. “On the AI side, your cost per view could be roughly one-third of your human roster because you’re paying for technology, not talent fees,” he said. IPLIX tested an AI-generated trend video that crossed 3 million views, and Gogia noted the algorithm treated it no differently from human content.
