Does having friends make AI influencers more human?
A recent podcast from Knowledge at Wharton explores how virtual influencers become more relatable when they are seen alongside human-looking companions.
Seeing the influencer with someone else makes them appear to have a social life. That can make the virtual influencer seem more human and trustworthy, even though the influencer is AI-generated.
Could brands amplify that effect by pairing a virtual influencer with a human-looking AI companion? The podcast suggests that how human the companion appears is an important part of the effect, opening up an interesting direction for virtual influencer content.
As virtual influencers become easier to create, the characters beside them may matter just as much as the influencers themselves.
