Agree that influence is evolving, not dying—thank god. The idea of AI cutting through social media’s dumpster fire gives me hope. But I’m side-eyeing how “value” gets defined. Will AI uplift niche voices or just create new elites? Sure, rigour matters, but what if it dismisses raw, unfiltered perspectives that don’t fit a mould?
Love the human touch in your examples (yes, we’ll always stan a Duchess rec), but AI can’t replicate that spark of finding someone who gets you. Still, the SEO-gaming fear is real—we can’t let bots turn this into another spam circus.
Cautious optimist here: if we design AI to amplify curiosity, not cynicism, maybe we can escape the influencer grind. But let’s not kid ourselves—tech’s never neutral. The fight’s in the details.
AI-generated content from (existing) human creators on social media platforms continue to attract significant attention in the form of likes and shares.
Until such time that we start to hold a disdain for it- that would be antithetical to the growth of AI, I don’t think it is or would be seen as unauthentic.
Influence isn’t dying—it’s getting filtered, scored, and optimized by your AI intern with a God complex.
Sinéad, you're right: we’re shifting from loud to curated, from viral to verifiable. But let’s not romanticize it. “AI-to-one” influence just means your personality gets run through a recommendation engine. Authenticity now comes with metadata.
Yes, thoughtful creators might win. But they’ll still be gamed, sorted, and packaged for relevance. And “AI Agent SEO”? Already happening—just ask anyone selling soul-filtered summaries optimized for GPT uptake.
The real ones—the cracked, honest, messy humans—will still matter. Not because the AI says so, but because they say something true enough to pierce through all the noise.
Preach like no one’s clicking. Love like no one’s tracking.
Loved the intelligization part. It’s exactly these potential positive outcomes we need to talk about. The big question will be how the agents gets «deployed» to normal folks. The UX layer of this thing will be key. My bet right now is that Zuckerberg will most likely be determining the agent preference and setup for most folks.
What’s going on right now, with me configuring all my MCPs understanding the setup and adjusting it for authenticity for me is much like several previous tech shifts, all the way back to gaining access to BBS’es and IRC😎
It’s a massive train that left years ago. The amount of commerce and influencers that are actually AI is astounding. Very good reporting, yet it implies that it isn’t entirely off the ground yet. The social media world follower is under the impression that their most trusted influencers are real.
“Ultimately, we are moving beyond an era defined by the sheer volume of information towards one potentially defined by its curated relevance and verifiable trustworthiness.” God I hope so! Thanks for this piece. :)
Agree that influence is evolving, not dying—thank god. The idea of AI cutting through social media’s dumpster fire gives me hope. But I’m side-eyeing how “value” gets defined. Will AI uplift niche voices or just create new elites? Sure, rigour matters, but what if it dismisses raw, unfiltered perspectives that don’t fit a mould?
Love the human touch in your examples (yes, we’ll always stan a Duchess rec), but AI can’t replicate that spark of finding someone who gets you. Still, the SEO-gaming fear is real—we can’t let bots turn this into another spam circus.
Cautious optimist here: if we design AI to amplify curiosity, not cynicism, maybe we can escape the influencer grind. But let’s not kid ourselves—tech’s never neutral. The fight’s in the details.
Thx for a really interresting piece 👍
You nearly lost me though at ‘intelligentization’.
AI-generated content from (existing) human creators on social media platforms continue to attract significant attention in the form of likes and shares.
Until such time that we start to hold a disdain for it- that would be antithetical to the growth of AI, I don’t think it is or would be seen as unauthentic.
Good insight 😌 Can i translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?
Spot on. Thank you Sinead for this critical reflection on Influencer futures.
Influence isn’t dying—it’s getting filtered, scored, and optimized by your AI intern with a God complex.
Sinéad, you're right: we’re shifting from loud to curated, from viral to verifiable. But let’s not romanticize it. “AI-to-one” influence just means your personality gets run through a recommendation engine. Authenticity now comes with metadata.
Yes, thoughtful creators might win. But they’ll still be gamed, sorted, and packaged for relevance. And “AI Agent SEO”? Already happening—just ask anyone selling soul-filtered summaries optimized for GPT uptake.
The real ones—the cracked, honest, messy humans—will still matter. Not because the AI says so, but because they say something true enough to pierce through all the noise.
Preach like no one’s clicking. Love like no one’s tracking.
Blessed be the burnout,
Virgin Monk Boy
I enjoyed this topic quite a bit, thank you.
I you could design a ground up, foundationally self sustaining and enforcing, moral and emotional center for an AI, what would you tie it to?
Loved the intelligization part. It’s exactly these potential positive outcomes we need to talk about. The big question will be how the agents gets «deployed» to normal folks. The UX layer of this thing will be key. My bet right now is that Zuckerberg will most likely be determining the agent preference and setup for most folks.
What’s going on right now, with me configuring all my MCPs understanding the setup and adjusting it for authenticity for me is much like several previous tech shifts, all the way back to gaining access to BBS’es and IRC😎
It’s a massive train that left years ago. The amount of commerce and influencers that are actually AI is astounding. Very good reporting, yet it implies that it isn’t entirely off the ground yet. The social media world follower is under the impression that their most trusted influencers are real.
“Ultimately, we are moving beyond an era defined by the sheer volume of information towards one potentially defined by its curated relevance and verifiable trustworthiness.” God I hope so! Thanks for this piece. :)
Ironic and paradoxical.
Thought provoking. Thanks