It seems like influence and influencers are in the news a lot these days, and I’d like to interrupt the constant flow of AI news to poke my head in here and bring us back to a crucial marketing reality — the age of influencer marketing is just beginning, and AI will actually make it more important.
Before I get into the logic of this conclusion, I need to call your attention to a piece of news that is profound and breathtaking if you’re in the marketing and advertising business.
Meanwhile, the broader ad market is weakening. WPP cut its global ad growth forecast for 2025 from 7.7% to 6%, and 54% of marketers plan to reduce traditional ad spending in 2025.
What’s fueling this growth? Why will AI push it upward to incredible new levels? There’s a one-word answer.
The force behind the Age of Influencer Marketing
Steve Jobs famously said, “A brand is trust.”
And trust is sorely lacking in marketing today. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in advertising declined from 50% to an abysmal 30% just 15 years.
No wonder so many CMOs are looking for jobs these days. So, who do we trust? We trust each other. We trust family. We trust neighbors. We trust friends.
And influencers aren’t some new media buy. They are trusted friends.
The overlooked psychology of influence
Social media influencers have become the most trusted voices in the digital landscape, not because they have the slickest production or biggest budgets, but because they build something deeper: a parasocial relationship.
A parasocial relationship is a one-sided psychological connection that an audience forms with a media figure—someone they follow, watch, or listen to regularly. The term was first coined in the 1950s by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl to describe the illusion of friendship people feel toward television personalities.
Decades later, social media has supercharged this dynamic. Unlike traditional celebrities, influencers invite their audiences into their daily lives—sharing their routines, thoughts, vulnerabilities, and real-time responses. The effect is powerful: followers feel like they know them.
This sense of familiarity and intimacy creates a unique bond. Unlike traditional advertising, which speaks at people, influencers speak with them—or at least, it feels that way. Viewers comment, DM, and even get replies. They see the creator’s dog, their bad skin days, their parenting challenges. Over time, this steady exposure builds trust. The influencer becomes a virtual friend—someone you’ve “spent” hours with, someone whose opinion feels authentic, raw, personal, not paid.
Recent industry and academic reports estimate that between 25% and 35% of teens visit social media each day primarily to see content from their favorite influencers. This figure is supported by the high rates of influencer following among teens and the significant influence influencers have on teen purchasing and engagement behaviors.
More important, studies show that people are more likely to act on product recommendations from influencers than from brands or celebrities.
The formula is that simple. Advertising lacks trust. But trust is the everyday currency of influencers. Of course it’s rocketing skyward, and in my view, the Age of Influencer Marketing is just beginning.
AI will drive influencer marketing growth
I wrote the first book on influencer marketing (Return On Influence) in 2011 before anybody was using the term. At the end of the book, I predicted that in two years it would become a mainstream marketing concept. The timing of the book was great:
What drove this growth? Trust in influencers. And in two ways, trust will drive the age of influencer marketing far into the future.
First, we live in a world plagued by AI-generated misinformation and deep fakes. We’ll always need to turn to real humans to help us discern what is real. Influencers are the trusted authorities in the right place at the right time.
Second, influencers are turning their significant power into tangible products. Just a few:
I recently gave a workshop to a large CPG company and told them that their biggest competitive threat isn’t Procter & Gamble or Unilever. It’s some passionate teenager building an audience on TikTok right now. These creator media empires are just beginning and the opportunities for brand-building is overpowering.
And here is the next big opportunity. New research exposed opportunities for smaller businesses. It showed that local celebrities often outperform their global counterparts by tapping into cultural relevance and audience affinity.
True effectiveness comes from authentic alignment between the ambassador and your brand values, not just fame alone. There is overlooked potential to extend the value of influencer marketing to regional and local brands.
I’ll also point out an important and nuanced point. These influencers are AI-proof. What are you doing to work on your own personal brand to build trust and authority?
The Age of Influencer Marketing is just beginning. If you want to know where to focus your marketing efforts in the coming years, don’t just follow the money, follow the trust.
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