AI influencers: algorithmic image and post-photographic practices on Instagram
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/16/01InflueKeywords:
Artificial Intelligence, Image, Technology, Virtual influencers, InstagramAbstract
In the context of digitisation, it appears impossible to discuss technological transformations without considering the evolution of the image and, in turn, it seems necessary to examine how images influence the implementation and scope of these technical changes. This study uses content analysis of 1910 Instagram posts to examine the possible connections between the evolution of technologies offered by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) and the codes that govern the posts of human-like virtual influencers generated through them. The results obtained reveal that the analyzed posts respond to a pattern that is deeply conditioned by the limitations of GAI to generate precise details in certain frames or maintain identity coherence in sequential images.
Metrics
References
ALLAL-CHÉRIF, O., PUERTAS, R., & CARRACEDO, P. (2024). Intelligent influenc-er marketing: how AI-powered virtual influencers outperform human influenc-ers. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 200, 123113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.123113
ARSENYAN, J. & MIROWSKA, A. (2021). Almost human? A comparative case study on the social media presence of virtual influencers. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 155, 102694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2021.102694
BATISTA DA SILVA OLIVEIRA, A. & CHIMENTI, P. (2021). «Humanized Robots»: A Proposition of Categories to Understand Virtual Influencers. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, (25), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v25i0.3223
BERRYMAN, R., ABIDIN, C. Y LEAVER, T. (2021). A topography of virtual influ-encers. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12145
BOMMASANI, R., HUDSON, D. A., ADELI, E., ALTMAN, R., ARORA, S., VON ARX, S., ... & LIANG, P. (2021). On the opportunities and risks of foundation models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.07258. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2108.07258
BOUGUEFFA, H., KEITA, M., HAMIDOUCHE, W., TALEB-AHMED, A., LIZ-LÓPEZ, H., MARTÍN, A., ... & HADID, A. (2024). Advances in AI-Generated Images and Videos. International Journal of Interactive Multimedia & Artificial Intelligence, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.9781/ijimai.2024.11.003
CALDEIRA, S. P. (2016). Identities in Flux: An Analysis to Photographic Self-Representation on Instagram. Observatorio (OBS*), 10(3). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS10320161031
CARO CASTAÑO, L. (2023). Prácticas postfotográficas en los medios socia-les. Un estudio transnacional sobre el uso de las historias de Instagram.
CARRILLO-DURÁN, M.,GARCÍA, M. Y CORZO, L. (2024). Influencers virtuales de apariencia humana como forma de comunicación online: el caso de Lil Miquela y Lu do Magalu en Instagram. Revista de Comunicación, (23)1, 119-140. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC23.1-2024-3453
CHAYKA, K. (2023). Is A.I. Art stealing from artist? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/is-ai-art-stealing-from-artists.
CHOUDRY, A.; HAN, J.; XU, X. & HUANG, Y. (2022). "I Felt a Little Crazy Follow-ing a'Doll'" Investigating Real Influence of Virtual Influencers on Their Follow-ers. Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, 6(GROUP), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1145/3492862
CHUNG, J., DING, Y., & KALRA, A. (2023). I really know you: how influencers can increase audience engagement by referencing their close social ties. Journal of Consumer Research, 50(4), 683-703. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad019
ENGSTRÖM, J. (2022). Virtual Influencers: Antecedents and Typologizing. En Annmarie Hanlon y Tracy Tuten (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Marketing (pp. 303-315). Sage.
FORRISTAL, L. (2023, 6 de octubre). Generative AI starup 1337 (Leet) is paying users to help create AI-driven influencers. Techcrunch. https://tinyurl.com/5xzatduk
FONTCUBERTA, J. (2016). La furia de las imágenes: notas sobre la postfoto-grafía (pp. 30-30). Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg.
FRANGANILLO, J. (2022). Contenido generado por inteligencia artificial: oportunidades y amenazas. Anuario ThinkEPI, 16. https://doi.org/10.3145/thinkepi.2022.e16a07
FRIER, S. (2020). No filter: The inside story of Instagram. Simon & Schus-ter
GARTNER (2023). Hype Cycle. https://surl.li/octart
GERLICH, M. (2023). The power of virtual influencers: Impact on consumer behaviour and attitudes in the age of AI. Administrative Sciences, 13(8), 178. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci13080178
GÓMEZ-GÓMEZ, H., & RUBIO-TAMAYO, J. L. (2023). Algoritmografía, hito y fe-nómeno en la producción de imágenes fijas en la era digital. VISUAL REVIEW: International Visual Culture Review/Revista Internacional de Cultura Visual, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.37467/revvisual.v10i2.507
GUERRERO-SOLÉ, F., & BALLESTER, C. (2023). El impacto de la Inteligencia Artificial Generativa en la disciplina de la comunicación. Hipertext. net, (26), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.31009/hipertext.net.2023.i26.01
HIGUERAS, S. J. V., & MATA-NÚÑEZ, A. (2025). Influencers virtuales femeni-nas y representación de género: análisis de su imagen en Instagram. European Public & Social Innovation Review, 10, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2025-568
HOFEDITZ, L., NISSEN, A., SCHÜTTE, R., & MIRBABAIE, M. (2022). Trust Me, I’m an Influencer! A Comparison of Perceived Trust in Human and Virtual Influenc-ers. ECIS 2022 Research-in-Progress Papers, 27. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2022_rip/27
HONTORIA, C. T. (2022). La publicidad encubierta. La publicidad a través de influencers. [Trabajo de Fin de Grado, Universidad de Valladolid].
KEMP, S. (2025) Digital 2025. We are social & Meltwater. https://wearesocial.com/es/blog/2025/02/digital-2025/
LASKIEWICZ, A.; KALINSKA-KULA, M. (2023). Virtual influencers as an emerg-ing marketing theory: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 47(6), 2479–2494. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12956
LIU, F & LEE, Y. (2024). Virtually authentic: examining the match-up hy-pothesis between human vs virtual influencers and product types. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 33(2), 287-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbm-03-2023-4418
LLOVET, C., & ESTABLÉS, M. J. (2023). ¿Desvestidos para triunfar? Análisis de contenido de la auto objetificación de influencers en España. Revista de Co-municación, 22(2), 271-297. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC22.2-2023-3004
LUNA, S. M. (2019). La imagen algorítmica. Hacia una nueva (in) visibili-dad. Revista Académica Estesis, (7), 4-17. https://doi.org/10.37127/25393995.50
MARTÍNEZ, I. J. M., TERRÓN, J. M. A., & COBARRO, P. D. H. S. (2022). Smart Ad-vertising: Innovación y disrupción tecnológica asociadas a la IA en el ecosiste-ma publicitario. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, (80), 28. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2022-1537
MOSELE, F. (2025). AI Timeline. A history of image and video generative models. https://www.fabianmosele.com/ai-timeline
MOSSERI A. [@mosseri]. (17 de octubre de 2024). Carousels often get more reach than single photo posts for two main reasons. Also, quick plug: using music on carousels... [Video]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBOeUmTSmIC/
NÚÑEZ, L. (29 de noviembre de 2022). Los tipos de influencers que debes conocer. ARDE. https://arde.io/2022/11/29/tipos-de-influencers/
PERES, R., SCHREIER, M., SCHWEIDEL, D., & SORESCU, A. (2023). On ChatGPT and beyond: How generative artificial intelligence may affect research, teach-ing, and practice. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 40(2), 269-275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2023.03.001
PODSTAWSKI, M., KUDELSKA, M., & WANG, H. (2025). Face Consistency Benchmark for GenAI Video. arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.11425. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.11425
ROBINSON, B. (2020). Towards an Ontology and Ethics of Virtual Influenc-ers. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 24. https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v24i0.2807
RODRIGO-MARTÍN, I.; MUÑOZ-SASTRE, D. & RODRIGO-MARTÍN, L. (2022). Los influencers virtuales como líderes de opinión y su empleo en técnicas en co-municación política. Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación, 13(1), 251-266. https://www.doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM.20751
SANZ-MARCOS, P., GONZÁLEZ-HABA, G., CASTILLO-DÍAZ, A. & VERGARA, E. (2024). La investigación científica sobre el uso de influencers en la gestión de las marcas: estado de la cuestión. Icono14, 22(1), e2125. https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v22i1.2125
SHEN, Z. (2024). Shall brands create their own virtual influencers? A comprehensive study of 33 virtual influencers on Instagram. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02698-y
SOCIALINSIDER. (2025, 5 mayo). 2025 Instagram Benchmarks. socialinsid-er.io.https://www.socialinsider.io/social-media-benchmarks/instagram
TEUBNER, T., FLATH, C. M., WEINHARDT, C., VAN DER AALST, W., & HINZ, O. (2023). Welcome to the era of chatgpt et al. the prospects of large language models. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 65(2), 95-101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-023-00805-y
THE BUSINESS RESEARCH COMPANY. (2025). Digital Human Global Market Report 2025. https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/digital-human-global-market-report
YANG, J., CHUENTERAWONG, P.,LEE, H. Y CHOCK, T. (2023). Anthropomor-phism in CSR Endorsement: A Comparative Study on Humanlike vs. Cartoonlike Virtual Influencers’ Climate Change Messaging. Journal of Promotion Manage-ment, 29(5), 705-734. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2022.2163041
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Diana Ramahí-García, Patricia Dopico-Rodríguez, Javier Abuín-Penas (Autor/a)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit to this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine's right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoComercial 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine, with no commercial purpose.
Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the magazine (for example, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
It allows and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as a citation more early and most of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
