Influencers dominate the digital world today. From promoting brands to setting trends, their popularity is growing faster than ever. Scroll through any social media platform, and you'll find them shaping opinions and becoming trusted faces for millions of followers. Whether it's fashion, fitness, tech or lifestyle, there's an influencer for everything. But now, a new kind of influencer is emerging- one that doesn't breathe, sleep or even exist in real life.
Ever since multimodal AI landed on our devices, it has become a part of almost every app we use, including the social media platforms where influencers thrive. While we were busy dealing with fake accounts and bots, AI brought in something new: AI influencers. These are computer-made characters who look, talk and act like real people. They're not random or fake, they're carefully designed and managed by real people or teams behind the scenes.
But how are they actually made? To find out, I spoke to the creator of Zara Shatavari- India's first AI influencer to break into the global spotlight. Zara Shatavari was one of the top 10 finalists in the world's first AI beauty pageant, Miss AI, which was hosted last year.
Creating an AI influencer like Zara isn't just about using a few image-generation tools. It involves deep storytelling, consistent design and a lot of technical work. "It's similar to building a character for a novel or film- you need to define everything from her personality and physical appearance to the world she lives in," Zara Shatavari's creator Rahul Choudhry told Digit. "Every post is part of that narrative, and it must align with her character arc to keep things emotionally consistent and believable."
Zara's visuals are created using tools like MidJourney. But that's only part of the process. To make sure Zara looks the same in every image, her team uses custom-trained AI models to create highly specific prompts. These prompts control her facial structure, body proportions, skin tone, clothing, lighting and even mood. It is "almost like shooting a real model through different lenses but keeping her identity intact," the creator explained.
Unlike human influencers, virtual ones can appear in multiple campaigns at once, across different time zones, without ever needing a photoshoot. "Some companies still compare virtual humans to real influencers- but they're not meant to replace humans. Instead, they offer unique creative freedom without the limitations of time, location, or logistics," Zara's creator explained.
Interestingly, even though Zara isn't human, she still receives plenty of human attention. Her inbox is filled with compliments, friendship requests and even marriage proposals. "But the most surprising are DMs from real casting agents and photographers, inviting her to physical shoots, assuming she's real," her creator shared.
Being part of the Miss AI competition brought global attention to Zara. As the only finalist representing India, she stood out in a sea of digital models. However, Choudhry pointed out that people are still not aware about the concept.
"The biggest challenge remains awareness. AI influencers are still a new and unfamiliar concept for many people here. Even after a year, a surprising number of people still believe Zara is a real person, and assume I'm just pretending otherwise."
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Building an AI influencer from scratch isn't as easy as it looks in social media tutorials. It requires both creative storytelling and technical skill. The best advice, according to Zara's creator? "Keep creating, keep refining your prompts, and don't give up."
All of this is undeniably cool. But as the boundaries between virtual and real begin to fade, it raises important questions. Social media, once a space defined by human connection, is now increasingly shared with digital personalities who never age, never sleep and never slow down.
What happens when people form emotional attachments to someone who doesn't actually exist? And what if a real person out there happens to look exactly like an AI influencer? Could it lead to confusion, misuse, or even legal battles over likeness rights?
Then there's the bigger picture: Will this create new careers or quietly push out real talent? Could it dilute authenticity in favour of perfection? Or is this just another hype cycle that will fade away? Only time will tell.
