Human vs. AI Influencers: Comparing Audience Engagement with Identical Content on Instagram

Abstract

Recent advances in generative AI have enabled influencers and brands to deploy AI-based creator identities at scale, yet little is known about how audiences respond when identical content is delivered by human versus AI influencers. This exploratory study provides the first exploration of this topic by comparing the engagement of audiences with identical Instagram video content delivered by the same influencer as both human and AI influencers. Eleven pairs of matched video reels addressing women's empowerment themes were posted to an audience of approximately 500,000 followers. The results revealed that while both human and AI influencers achieved comparable engagement metrics, the human influencer generated significantly higher levels of active engagement in terms of likes and follows. Furthermore, sentiment analysis of 2,287 comments revealed that the human influencer delivered more total comments but with mixed sentiment, whereas the AI influencer delivered fewer comments but with higher proportions of positive sentiment. These findings suggest that AI influencers can capture attention, but struggle to convert exposure into sustained behavioural commitment and deeper audience relationships. The research provides exploratory insights for the strategic use of human and AI influencers in digital marketing campaigns and provides the first real-world comparison of human and AI influencers using identical content. Although the research was limited to a single influencer profile and audience, these findings are exploratory and specific to the context studied and should not be generalised beyond this setting pending replication across diverse influencer accounts, platforms, and audiences. Nevertheless, the study provides preliminary insights for the use of human and AI influencers and has implications for the development of AI influencers and their use in digital marketing campaigns.