{"id":4425464,"date":"2026-02-27T00:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/?post_type=article&p=4425464"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:55:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:55:59","slug":"rethinking-authenticity-in-the-age-of-ai-influence","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-uki\/insight\/rethinking-authenticity-in-the-age-of-ai-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking authenticity in the age of AI influence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/mask><\/g><\/svg>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tInsights\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\tRethinking authenticity in the age of AI influence<\/h1>
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tDate\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 27, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n\tAuthenticity isn\u2019t disappearing in the age of AI influencers. But it is being clarified.<\/p>\n\tBecause for AI influencers, authenticity is often framed as something that can be simulated but never truly achieved.

And, in a world that prizes authenticity above all else, it\u2019s no wonder that this notion has become one of the most scathing critiques of artificial influence.

But the debate about AI influencers isn\u2019t really about influencers at all. It\u2019s about branding and the assumption that, to be authentic, a brand must be vulnerable in the same way a person is. Capable of failure. Of contradiction. Of genuine emotional risk.

Yet brands have never operated under those conditions. And still, for decades, some have managed to feel unmistakably authentic. If authenticity truly depends on being human, then none of this should work. And yet, for some brands, it clearly does.

So, what separates these brands from the rest of the pack?

(For clarity, when we say \u201cAI influencer\u201d here, we mean virtual personas, AKA, CGI or AI-generated characters, published as recurring social identities.)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tArtificial authenticity vs. authentic artificiality<\/h2>\n\tSome AI influencers have been embraced. Some haven\u2019t. And the determining factor all comes down to how these influencers handle authenticity.

On the one hand, we have AI influencers that attempt to meticulously render an illusion of human experience. In the same way that Madame Tussaud\u2019s would attempt to create a 1:1 likeness of a celebrity, these influencers attempt to create a 1:1 performance of authenticity.

The problem with this artificial version of authenticity is that, no matter how convincing the performance may be, the illusion cracks when consumers get a closer look.

<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\tTake Shudu Gram<\/a>. Although she appeared on the social scene as a self-described digital fashion model, her posts looked so real that they were celebrated with hashtags like #blackisbeautiful and shared widely across pages devoted to celebrating women of colour.

When it was discovered that Shudu was actually created by a white man (British photographer Cameron-James Wilson) critics began describing Shudu as an ethically fraught projection.\u00a0

In other words, the problem wasn\u2019t that Shudu was artificial. It was that her artificiality was obscured beneath such a believable veneer of realism.
<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\tAt the opposite end of the spectrum, there are the AI influencers who embrace their artificiality as part of their trademark. Instead of trying to create a perfect recreation of the human experience, the performance these influencers are attempting is much closer to a parody.

In this camp, we have AI influencers like Noonoouri, a virtual pop star with cartoonishly large eyes and anime-inspired features created by German graphic designer Joerg Zuber.\u00a0

\u201cI live at the intersection of imagination and innovation, where the best of all worlds becomes one,\u201d Noonoouri writes on her website bio. \u201cStep in, stay curious, and let’s explore the beauty of what’s possible \u2014 together.\u201d

Unlike Shudu, Noonoouri isn\u2019t trying to recreate human authenticity. She\u2019s defining it for herself, and her artificiality is a key part of the equation.

The debate around AI influencers, then, isn\u2019t simply about whether or not they\u2019re capable of authenticity. It\u2019s about whether or not humanity is a necessary ingredient for authenticity at all.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tAuthenticity is what you build<\/h2>\n\tBecause we tend to think of influencers as human, we also tend to view authenticity as anchored in lived experience. We associate being \u201creal\u201d with the ability to fail publicly, change our minds, contradict ourselves, or disappoint an audience.

AI influencers, by contrast, exist outside of real-world stakes. Their struggles aren\u2019t felt; they\u2019re written. Their vulnerability isn\u2019t discovered; it\u2019s designed. And for many critics, that makes true authenticity impossible for artificial influencers to achieve.

But that critique depends on a narrow definition of both \u201cinfluencer\u201d and \u201cauthenticity.\u201d

After all, some of the most successful influencers online aren\u2019t human at all. Mickey Mouse has more than three million followers on Instagram<\/a>. Mr. Peanut racks up millions of TikTok likes<\/a>. Entire economies of pet influencers thrive online, with no one pretending these creators are consciously curating their brands.

What these examples reveal is something marketers have always known, even if we haven\u2019t named it explicitly: authenticity isn\u2019t a biological trait. It\u2019s a trust outcome.

And for brands, that trust has never worked the same way human authenticity does. Brands don\u2019t earn it by being vulnerable in the human sense. They earn it by being coherent, intentional, and recognisable over time. By behaving in ways that feel true to who they\u2019ve shown themselves to be.

In this way, authenticity isn\u2019t something you are<\/em>. It\u2019s something you build<\/em>, and once you do, it\u2019s something you need to protect<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tCharacter is authenticity’s secret sauce<\/h2>\n\tCharacter-based influence on social media isn\u2019t new. And it never seems to lose its power.

The jewellery brand Alexis Bittar offers a masterclass with the \u201cBittarverse,\u201d<\/a> a serialised social drama following fictional NYC socialite Margaux Goldrich and her long-suffering assistant Jules. Margaux is exaggerated, vain, unapologetically out of touch\u2026 and audiences can\u2019t get enough of her.

The Bittarverse characters have a clear POV, defined boundaries, and a worldview that guides every post. The result is something far more authentic than a brand trying to sound \u201crelatable.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\tThe same pattern shows up among today\u2019s most successful AI influencers.\u00a0

Granny Spills<\/a>, for instance, has amassed millions of followers across Instagram and TikTok with her biting social commentary and glamorous disdain. She isn\u2019t trying to pass as human. She\u2019s leaning fully into character.

And that\u2019s precisely why she works.

Granny Spills\u2019 success illustrates a crucial lesson: Strong personality and clear POV are just as much creative choices as they are strategic ones. A well-defined character makes content more entertaining, more scalable, and easier to govern. It creates clarity about what the brand will say, how it will say it, and where the line is.

By contrast, AI influencers that aim for subtlety often end up in dangerous territory. When artificial personas try too hard to mimic human authenticity, they risk feeling hollow or uncanny. Worse, they become difficult to manage\u2014because without a strong character, there are no guardrails. And without guardrails, consistency collapses.

And even beyond consistency, character helps establish accountability cues. A clear persona makes it easier for an audience to understand what\u2019s \u201cin bounds,\u201d what\u2019s performative, and what the brand actually stands for beneath the bit.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tLooking ahead<\/h2>\n\tThe question isn\u2019t whether AI can ever be authentic in a human sense. It\u2019s whether brands are disciplined enough to build characters strong enough to be authentic in a brand sense.

Characters with lore, point of view, and limits. Characters designed not to imitate humanity, but to express something true.

Before you invest in a virtual persona, pressure test your strategy with three questions:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Are we building a character, or trying to pass as a person?<\/strong> If the goal is realism, you\u2019re also signing up for higher expectations around disclosure, representation, and audience trust. If the goal is character, you can establish clearer boundaries\u2014and avoid the uncanny valley of \u201calmost human.\u201d<\/li>
  • What\u2019s the POV, and what are the limits?<\/strong> What does this persona reliably believe, critique, or celebrate? What do they not<\/em> touch? If you can\u2019t define the boundaries, the persona will eventually drift, contradict itself, or become a liability.<\/li>
  • Who owns accountability?<\/strong> When something lands poorly (and eventually, something will), who is responsible for the response? Who signs off? What\u2019s the escalation path? \u201cIt\u2019s AI\u201d is not a crisis plan.<\/li><\/ul>\n\nBrands need not build AI influencers that chase realism. But they need to understand how to treat authenticity as what it has always been.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n
    \n\tON OUR MIND<\/span><\/h2>\n\tVIEW ALL INSIGHTS<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t
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