AI in influencer marketing – new opportunities for a growing field
Influencer marketing has established itself as a central part of companies’ marketing strategies, and investment in the field grows year on year. According to IAB’s annual surveys, the value of influencer marketing in Finland grew by around €28.3 million between 2020 and 2023 — roughly a doubling of the field during the 2020s.
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2025 report, the global market value of influencer marketing is forecast to reach USD 32.55 billion in 2025. There is no sign of the growth slowing: in early March 2025, Unilever announced — a company among the world’s 200 largest — that it would increase its influencer marketing investment from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of its total advertising budget.
The development of AI brings the growing influencer marketing field new opportunities that speed up decision-making, improve targeting, and increase campaign transparency. Thanks to AI, marketers can move from subjective choices to a data-driven strategy in which influencer collaboration is based on real performance metrics and audience analytics.
In this article I discuss influencer marketing from my own experience as a specialist in the field, focusing in particular on the opportunities and changes AI brings. At the end I share three concrete tips for every marketer.
AI as a help in choosing influencers
Traditionally, choosing influencers has relied on manual work, personal relationships, and subjective preferences, which can unintentionally even be discriminatory. That makes influencer selection biased and exposes it to human error.
AI, such as Luota AI, enables objective influencer selection for brands, so that choices are based on data, values alignment, and content history.
AI can be used to compare fit with a brand’s values, target group, and previous campaign results. That ensures the marketing budget is targeted effectively and the messages reach the right audience. AI can also predict influencers’ future performance by analysing their previous content, engagement levels, and follower growth trends.
Another significant advantage is the ability to identify fake followers and inactive accounts, which can make up as much as 20–30% of some influencers’ following. When collaboration is targeted at real, active followers, brands’ organic reach can grow by 25–50% compared with traditional influencer selection.
What will influencer marketing look like in future?
AI has the potential to change how influencer marketing works significantly. It lets brands find suitable influencer partners by using data and identifying those whose audience precisely matches the target group. AI also makes it possible to personalise content for different audience segments, which can improve campaign effectiveness.
AI also enables real-time adjustments, making influencer marketing more dynamic and adaptive. As campaigns progress, AI can adjust strategies on the fly to maximise impact. That adaptability makes campaigns effective at building meaningful connections too.
Brands that make AI part of their influencer marketing can gain a competitive advantage.
The analysis and forecasting AI enables allow for more consistent, better-targeted, and more effective campaigns that can produce better results with fewer resources. It is important to note, however, that when using AI you have to be extremely careful about the accuracy and currency of the data, because AI can make mistakes.
Three concrete tips from a specialist for every marketer
1. Use AI to optimise your content strategy
AI analyses previously successful campaigns and predicts what kind of content will resonate best with an audience. AI-based tools such as ChatGPT, Copy.ai, or Persado can be used to optimise content, write more effective captions, and select keywords with viral potential. If you have the paid version of ChatGPT, you can, for example, ask the Deep Research model to produce a comprehensive and detailed keyword analysis (read Tekoälyfoorumi’s article about Deep Research here).
2. Predict viral potential before publishing
AI can analyse previous posts and predict which images, captions, and hashtags are likely to get the most visibility and engagement. Test content in advance with Predict AI tools, or use Sprinklr AI to analyse and recommend the best publishing times and content formats.
3. Use AI for dynamic, personalised ads
AI can create personalised ads and tailored messages for different target groups, which improves effectiveness and engagement. Use tools such as Meta AI Ads, Adzooma, or Smartly.io to optimise paid influencer collaborations and target messages precisely at the right audiences.
It is worth noting that AI’s role in influencer marketing does not replace the creative, human side — it makes the processes more precise, more efficient, and more measurable. When decisions are based on data and analytics, brands can direct their marketing budget at influencers who genuinely resonate with their target group. That increases campaign impact and engagement and improves return on investment.
Links and sources
https://www.influencer-hero.com/blogs/fake-followers-and-their-impact-on-roi
https://www.ft.com/content/0f1e12d8-62c7-4f76-898d-61aa431e0b2e
https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/
https://www.iab.fi/tagihaku.html?tagged=vaikuttajamarkkinointi
About the writer and Luota AI
Janika Tommila (LinkedIn) is the founder and marketing director of Luota Agency, Finland’s first and only AI-based influencer marketing agency. Luota Agency develops and owns the Luota AI software, which analyses a vast amount of data from different sources to identify objectively the best possible influencers for companies in different situations. The software is also trained in line with trends in influencer marketing.
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