Dr. Emrick's Books and Articles
Video Killed the Radio Star!
To borrow from The Buggles’ famous prophecy: “Video
killed the radio star.” Today, it's AI's turn. And its target? AI will kill
the social influence, Star! Once upon a time, a teenager in their bedroom with
a front-facing camera and a dream could become the next global sensation—no
credentials needed—just charisma, hashtags, and a ring light. From beauty tips
in bathrooms to six-figure brand deals, social influencers became the
self-appointed tastemakers of a generation. But as with every cultural moment
inflated by novelty and driven by algorithms, its expiration date looms. And
it’s arriving faster than anyone expected—this time, with a synthetic smile and
a voice trained on a million human prompts.
Influencer culture emerged from a confluence of collapsing
trust in institutions and the ascent of social platforms promising
“authenticity.” Consumers, especially Gen Z and Millennials, grew wary of
brands telling them what to buy. Influencers—relatable, unscripted, and
seemingly just like us—stepped into that trust vacuum. They sold lifestyles,
not products. Their power lay in emotional resonance, the illusion of intimacy,
and just enough vulnerability to make their sponsored content feel sincere. But
over time, the “influence” started to feel manufactured. Followers became
metrics. Likes became currency. Authenticity became a brand strategy. And
somewhere along the way, the human behind the persona got algorithmically
replaced by what the system wanted to promote: viral content, not meaningful
connection. The future doesn’t wear Gucci—it wears code. AI influencers don’t
age. They don’t demand brand safety clauses. They don’t get canceled. They
don’t sleep. And they certainly don’t charge $25,000 per post based on
“engagement rates.” For marketing executives under pressure to produce
scalable, global content with precision targeting, the question becomes: Why
pay for a moody, unpredictable influencer when I can create a perfect,
compliant, custom digital face in under five minutes?
Let’s not ignore economics. Influencers are businesses. They
require makeup artists, video editors, managers, and a level of personal upkeep
that mirrors the standards of Hollywood stardom. AI? It costs a fraction of the
budget and delivers more in less time. We're not far from a moment when entire
ad campaigns are produced, voiced, and “performed” by synthetic personalities
indistinguishable from humans. This isn’t science fiction, it’s happening now. AI
platforms can now mimic exact voices and likenesses. Soon, the face you see
selling you collagen water or promoting mindfulness won't be a person at all.
It will be an illusion tailored for your demographic segment, spoken in your
dialect, referencing your regional slang, and posted during your time zone’s
highest engagement window. At its core, the influence of the economy is a
cultural phenomenon. It relies on a delicate human bond—a follower believing
they “know” the person on the screen. However, as generative AI becomes
increasingly emotionally astute and deepfake technologies refine the art of
mimicry, we begin to experience a paradox: synthetic personas feel more real
than real ones. Humans have limits. We get tired, anxious, and insecure. We
say the wrong things. We misread the room. AI doesn’t. AI can adapt, simulate
empathy, and respond with the polish of a PR-trained diplomat. In short, it can
outperform humanity in the very domain we thought was un-automatable:
connection.
And let’s be honest—many followers never cared whether the
advice came from a real person, as long as it looked good, sounded confident,
and validated their preferences. The influencer's power was never their
humanity. It was their relatability. And that, it turns out, is programmable. Zoom
out, and a broader disruption reveals itself. Influence is no longer tethered
to individuals. It’s becoming a product of systems, data, and design. AI
doesn’t just automate influence; it rewires its very architecture. It can
predict trends before they happen, generate content faster than any human team,
and customize messaging at scale. This has ripple effects that extend well
beyond fashion, beauty, and fitness. In healthcare, AI avatars will soon
replace “doctor influencers” with medically accurate, always-on health
educators. In education, synthetic tutors will deliver learning at a fraction
of the emotional labor required by real instructors. Even politics is not
immune—AI bots trained to mimic voter concerns could become the next wave of
influence operations.
To be clear, the point is not to mourn the end of human
influencers. It is to understand what their rise—and now decline—tells us about
ourselves. The influencer era taught us that attention is currency. The AI era
teaches us that manufactured attention is more profitable than authentic
connection. This isn’t the death of creativity. But it is the death of
creative exclusivity. Being “influential” no longer requires a life lived, a
story told, or a voice honed. It requires a prompt, a data set, and a good
rendering engine. For creators who built careers around persona, the future
demands reinvention. Human relevance will lie not in being perfect, but in
being unpredictable. In embracing the flaws that algorithms can’t replicate. In
saying the thing that isn’t scripted. Ironically, the path forward may require
returning to what the influencer economy was always supposed to be: a bit
messy, deeply human, and unafraid of being real. AI won’t kill the social
influencer because it is better at being human. It killed the social influencer
because it was better at faking what we thought humanity looked like online.
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