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Check out this girl: she has 2.9 million Instagram followers. She knows Bella Hadid (they’ve kissed in a Calvin Clein commercial) and Rosalia (they’ve taken pictures together). She even made a song with Baauer called “Hate Me.” But here’s the thing: she isn’t real. She is a robot — literally. The 19-year-old L.A. native who goes by the name Lil Miquela is a virtual influencer created by the startup A.I. company called “Brud” in 2016. She has since modeled for Prada and Dior, and is worth $125 million.
But here’s the scariest part: at first glance, Miqueal could be mistaken for an actual person.
If you haven’t picked up on the virtual influencers trend yet, you may be surprised to know that the concept originated in the 1980s. At the time, virtual influencers were typically designed to resemble real people for marketing campaigns. The first one was Lynn Minmay, a fictional Japanese pop idol. Originally introduced in the Super Dimension Fortress Macross anime series in 1982, the franchise expanded the character into the music landscape, releasing songs under her name as if she actually performed them. Flash forward to 2015, when there were nine virtual influencers, and then to now, when there are an estimated over 200.
The continued growth of these virtual influencers comes down to cost and profit. As the cost to produce a bot like Lil Miquela decreases over the coming year — as industry insiders like Ryan Detert, CEO at A.I. marketing tech company Influential, estimate —the likelihood of encountering them as we shop for brands becomes significantly higher.
The fashion industry has been quick to embrace virtual influencers as reliable models. “They are completely loyal and they don’t have the capability to cause any scandals that can harm a brand,” Mao Lin Liao, founder of Netherlands A.I. startup Reblium, told Fashion United in 2022.
In 2022, UK’s high street retail store Marks & Spencer “hired” Mira, a virtual influencer created by tech agency Happy Finish in 2018, who now has over 4 thousand Instagram followers, as a model for their social media marketing. Mira was the only virtual influencer that Marks & Spencer hired in their campaign.
While some of the response to Mira was supportive — as seen in comments calling her “absolutely amazing,” or complementing the concept as “the future” of advertising, on a post of the virtual influencer sipping a cocktail and modeling a Marks & Spencer brown jacket — the majority of reactions have been overwhelmingly negative. Criticisms ranged from beliefs that “we should be promoting real imperfect people,” to general disgust: “This is so wrong,” one commenter wrote.
More recently, in March 2023, Levi’s used bot models in their diversity campaign, which also received backlash. The campaign featured a racially diverse mix of both real and A.I. models, which drew criticism from some Black models, who said it was a step backwards in inclusivity. Levi’s responded to the controversy in a press release, saying that the purpose of these bot models was to “supplement human models to create a more inclusive, personal and sustainable shopping experience for fashion brands, retailers and customers.” As one Twitter user responded, “There are hundreds, THOUSANDS of diverse models out there who can model for your brand. @LEVIS this is lazy and not the answer to being and understanding the importance of diversity in your campaigns.” Subsequently, in an April 2023 statement, Levi’s reiterated their stance that A.I. models will only increase diversity and won’t replace real models. “We are not scaling back our plans for live photo shoots.” Levi’s stated. “Authentic storytelling has always been part of how we’ve connected with our fans, and human models and collaborators are core to that experience.”
Despite Levi’s claim that they only plan to use bots in moderation, there are still some who think virtual influencers could replace human models entirely. Emilia Petrarca, a journalist for The Cut who profiled Lil Miquela in 2018, doesn’t think that will happen. “I think when I was originally reporting that story, in 2018, there was a question about if Lil Miquela is taking model’s jobs — I don’t know about that.” Petrarca said. “I don’t see them [as being] necessarily in competition with one another.”
In fact, she thinks this is just another trend destined to become short-lived. “People are drawn to Lil Miquela because it’s something different — but as the market becomes more saturated, they’ll find it harder and harder to gain a following.”
Ryan Detert has a different take. “I think the more that this becomes the zeitgeist, the potential is massive,” Detert said. “I think invariably, any time you have an audience pay attention to something, it has a ripple effect. As more celebrities like Jennifer Anniston and Serena Williams, who have their own virtual avatars they built through third parties, continue to [participate], that will affect people’s understanding and acceptance of it, and eventually it becomes the norm.”
Influential creates avatars for Fortune 1000 brands. They work on how to best personify the virtual influencers’ intellectual property to engage with audiences in a new way. The company’s mission is to integrate virtual influencers with real-life scenarios. “Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul was the marriage of cartoons and real life,” Detert said. “That’s not far from what we can do today.”
Furthermore, Detert believes that adding an interactive component in virtual influencer campaigns could allow brands to have a closer relationship with consumers: “For example, take Geico: as largely seen on T.V., that’s all you get out of it, but imagine if there’s responsiveness back and forth — one that creates additional brand love, affinity and experiences for consumers.”
Detert also argues that virtual influencers are worth the investment from a financial standpoint. “At scale, once you create that 3D model, you don’t have to worry about time, food, all the things that come with a human, so there’s inherent upside by doing so,” Detert said. “I think each year it’s going to be cheaper and cheaper and eventually in three to five years you might be able to make one for tens of thousands of dollars per year — which, if you could do that, and monetize hundreds of thousands, you’ll make as many as you can.”
While the future of virtual influencers seems pretty bright, the flipside of that potential remains scary. “After researching, I think the whole thing just became a lot more sinister,” Petrarca said. “The more you learn about the certain mechanism behind it, there was a certain level of mystery to it because the creators were very hush-hush. They were reluctant to speak with me — so when you have a lack of information, you sort of assume the worst, or it leads you to make assumptions that might not necessarily be rosy.”