Read The Creator Economy’s Coming-of-Age Moment, a special package that breaks down the stakes facing influencers and the brands that work with them today, and how they can evolve to meet the market.
When Claire Hunter launched her fashion-focused Instagram account, The Endless Hunt, in November 2025, she knew her approach wasn’t aligned with what was trending.
Created to support her personal shopping business, the account highlights emerging designers and niche aesthetics, from smaller jewellery labels like Sophie Bille Brahe and Cano to stand collar jackets and zebra stripes. But at the time, social media was filled with sameness: shoppers and creators hopping on viral microtrends and sharing dupes. Still, she found that followers loved her content, receiving a stream of messages telling her how refreshing it was.
“People want to support emerging talent and find brands that aren’t already all over the internet as much,” said Hunter, adding that her most popular videos are those featuring lesser-known designers.
As feeds become increasingly filled with AI-generated content — often referred to not-so-lovingly as “AI slop,” influencers, who develop a human connection with their followers, seem poised to serve as an antidote.
But overcoming the growing wave of AI — in content, shopping recommendations and more — will present its own challenges. Not only are creators competing with the other posts in their feeds, but also the growing capabilities of LLMs like ChatGPT and platforms like Daydream, an AI-powered shopping search engine. To remain relevant, creators need to emphasise their unique point of view rather than chasing trends and work to build on the trust they’ve established with their followers.
“AI doesn’t understand taste,” said L.J. Northington, founder of AI-powered creator shopping platform Aesthetic. “There’s some magic to that, where humans are able to really understand how another human may feel when they wear that outfit.”
Creators, however, will not only be competing with AI. Like in any profession, they will need to get comfortable using AI tools to support their own workflows — and a rush of AI-led startups are cropping up to help with everything from matching brands and influencers to automating social media campaigns.
Trusted Tastemakers
As consumers are bombarded with content and options from countless brands — not to mention those creating dupes — AI has become a key tool for filtering out the noise and boiling down the entire internet’s worth of options to a select few for a given search.
But while nearly three quarters of consumers now use AI while shopping, according to a global study by risk intelligence firm Riskified, it’s still primarily a research tool used to compare price or product attributes. Only 13 percent have actively used it to make a purchase. As Vicky Boudreau, founder of influencer marketing platform Heylist, put it: “Searching on a tool like ChatGPT is more about considering all the options.”
Influencers, meanwhile, are often the last step before purchase. Hunter gave the example of a shopper deciding between two coats — they’re more likely to go for the one that nabbed the creator’s endorsement.
“Creators are that line of trust, the final filter before somebody clicks purchase,” said Hunter. “It’s that last person that gets them over the hump and gives them permission to buy the piece.”
As AI-generated content gets more sophisticated and becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from human images and videos, content from creators a consumer already knows and trusts is likely to become even more impactful, said Boudreau.
But this won’t come without challenges, particularly as LLMs like Google’s Gemini or ChatGPT are rolling out more tools designed to make it easier to check out via AI, and more brands are investing in agentic AI bots that can shop on consumers’ behalf.
Creators will need to further differentiate to retain their position as a trusted guide for purchases. That means being ahead of the curve, offering education on niche brands or aesthetics that might not yet be on their audience’s radar — meaning they won’t think to search for them using AI. They can also drill down into their own unique sense of style, showing viewers how to piece together unexpected items, like self-proclaimed “wardrobe whisperer” Sarah Corbett-Winder, known for her funky, colourful pattern mixing.
Rather than just being “ the person who can get in front of the camera and make content,” said Northington, “the creator economy is going to shift more towards the curator.”
AI as Facilitator, Not Replacement
AI also has plenty of potential for creators, particularly as a tool to support their work, whether for video and script editing, or brainstorming. However, those uses should have their limits — the worst-case scenario is that AI-assisted content feels generic or interchangeable with the “slop” that already populates their feeds.
“Audiences are going to be really hyper focused on nuance in 2026,” said Idalia Salsamendi, founder of creator consultancy Idalia Inc. “It’s the lived experience, the sense of humour, the cadence of the creator.”
Creators can instead take advantage of AI-driven platforms that help them operate more efficiently and monetise their content more easily. Both new startups and established influencer marketing companies alike are rolling out new tools and services that incorporate AI. Heylist, Fohr, Agentio and Statusphere all use AI to connect creators and brands relevant to their expertise, simplify campaign management and measure performance. Others, like affiliate platforms ShopMy and LTK, are embedding AI into their processes to automatically update their online shopfronts with the most relevant shopping recommendations for consumers, making it more likely they’ll purchase.
Some tools even attempt to bridge the gap between creators and AI platforms, like FindGPT by Aesthetic, which enables creators to earn a cut of any purchase inspired by their content, even if an item isn’t linked, or is a lookalike but not an exact match.
Considering the rapid growth of both the creator economy and AI technology, it seems likely that only more platforms that marry the two will be available in the future.
“We want to help people use AI as an amplifier and facilitator of taste — a steward — as opposed to an author,” said Northington.
