AI-powered shopping is here, and it will change the role of influencers

They’ve shaped trends, guided purchases, and built billion-dollar businesses off authenticity, aspiration, and a well-angled ring light. 

Thanks to new capabilities like ChatGPT’s AI-powered shopping, we’re entering a phase where product recommendations aren’t from a person you follow—but from an AI trained on what you care about, what you value, and what you’re likely to buy. 

And for brands, that raises a big question: what happens when influence is no longer human-first?

Influencers have been central to how people connect with brands. They bring cultural relevance, aspirational storytelling, and a human layer to commerce that traditional advertising rarely achieves. No question that their influence drives results.

The landscape is shifting. Audiences are more skeptical of how the game works. The rise of “de-influencing” on TikTok is a sign of the times: creators openly sharing which products aren’t worth the hype, and encouraging followers to buy less, not more. It’s not anti-influencer—it’s post-influencer. People want honesty over aspiration. Authenticity over performance. And brands that rely too heavily on influencer culture to move product are starting to feel that friction.

None of this means influencer marketing is dead.

But it does mean the dynamic is changing. That creates space for a new kind of guide: one that doesn’t guess what people want, but starts with the individual and works backward from there.

That’s where AI comes in.

AI-powered shopping isn’t here to replace creators. It’s here to do what they can’t: deliver context-aware, highly relevant product suggestions at scale.

At DEPT®, we’ve seen this shift firsthand. When we built Kenna, the AI beauty assistant for Essence Cosmetics, the goal wasn’t to answer basic product questions. It was to deliver something more human: brand-aligned, intuitive, and able to meet each customer where they were in their journey. That’s the kind of experience people increasingly expect. Not mass appeal. Real fit.

This new layer of AI-driven curation moves beyond broadcast. It understands preferences, intent, values, and even timing. The result? A recommendation that feels less like an ad and more like advice from someone who genuinely gets you.

Today’s AI doesn’t have access to users’ Instagram follows or TikTok behavior. But it doesn’t need to—not yet. It relies on structured product data, contextual signals, and brand messaging. And you control all of that.

This is the moment for brands to step up. How your products are described, the clarity of your brand voice, and how your values are surfaced shape how AI presents you. And as AI gets more embedded into everyday platforms, your presence in these environments won’t be optional. It’ll be expected.

This shift doesn’t spell the end of the creator economy. If anything, it expands it. Creators will still inspire and shape taste, but instead of being the final stop in the funnel, they’ll become part of a larger ecosystem that feeds AI-driven systems.

For brands, this means:

• Think long-term with creator content. Don’t just chase engagement. Build assets that algorithms can index, resurface, and contextualize.
• Structure your product data. AI can’t recommend what it doesn’t understand. Rich, descriptive metadata is now a competitive advantage.
• Clarify your brand POV. Algorithms aren’t going to invent your tone or values. They’ll reflect what you’ve made clear through your content.

This is a moment of transition, not disruption for its own sake, but evolution. And the brands that win will be the ones that treat AI not as a gimmick, but as a new distribution layer.

Start by asking:

• Is our content optimized for conversational discovery?
• Are we feeding AI the best version of our brand?
• How do we show up when influence becomes personalized?

AI-powered shopping is here. And while it’s not replacing the human element, it is changing how influence gets delivered. Brands that prepare for this shift now won’t just adapt—they’ll shape what comes next.