“Is It a Machine Influencing Me?”: An Analysis on Hyper-Realistic AI Influencers

Introduction

Certain developments in human history have led to important turning points. Many developments such as the transition to settled life and agricultural production, the invention of writing, geographical discoveries, various revolutions, popular movements, war and peace have shaped social life while changing the lives of ordinary people considerably. Each change has been the result of a substantial process while being the cause of another, providing a dialectical and fluid continuity. Technological developments are one of the important triggers of change in human history within this dialectical process. Beginning in the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution increased the importance of science and technology in life and opened the doors to the information age. The widespread use of computers along with the internet has had profound effects on communication, information flow and social structures followed by a high level of human-machine interaction. Through a rapid development in recent years yet at the disposal of human intelligence, artificial intelligence technologies have helped human life by means of various technological equipment that has qualities similar to human intelligence.

Today, artificial intelligence technologies have a considerably increasing influence on many fields ranging from health and law to public administration and education. One of these impact areas of artificial intelligence is marketing and marketing communication. In this field, many artificial intelligence-based applications have been effectively used in processes such as production, distribution, pricing, and promotion.

Artificial intelligence technologies are specifically being utilized in marketing communication by means of identifying target audience expectations and producing content for marketing communication tools like advertising and public relations. With the integration of artificial intelligence-based applications into the field of marketing communication, tasks such as design and visual and written content production, which used to be arduous and long processes, are being accomplished in a notably lesser span of time.

Artificial intelligence applications used in today's marketing communications are generally classified into four categories: vision, language, discovery, and prediction-decision. The effective use of artificial intelligence in marketing communication increases operational efficiency, improves customer relations, optimizes marketing expenditures, and increases sales (Keleş, Keleş & Akçetin, 2017). In this context, many applications in these four categories can support brands in marketing communication process.

Intelligent digital assets are digital items that are created using artificial intelligence technology. Such entities are programmed via the use of artificial intelligence algorithms that can make faster and more accurate decisions than humans, have a high degree of learning ability, and can work with large amounts of data. Voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, virtual assistants like Microsoft Teams and Slack, and some automatic translation systems are various examples of smart digital assets (Sarı, 2023). Brands in the field of marketing communication have recently employed a large number of influencers who carry out communication practises with artificial intelligence technologies. Artificial intelligence-based influencers managed by artificial intelligence software are also widely exploited. It is in this context that smart digital assets have been added brand new dimensions with the influencer mission.