The starting of the millennium marked the dawn of modern web culture. For the primary time, bizarre people could create loyal global communities and have mainstream influence. Bloggers began generating revenue streams from brand deals typically reserved for celebrities.
As these creators migrated to social media, influencer marketing became ubiquitous and prolific (and sometimes notorious). The influencer economy grew, creating more opportunities for creators and brands alike. But some wonder if influencer marketing’s potential has already reached its peak, and if investing so heavily in influencers and creators continues to make sense for brands.
Data from Sprout Social’s Q3 2025 Pulse Survey paints a transparent picture. 64% of consumers say when a brand partners with their favorite influencers they’re more willing to purchase.
While influencers will proceed to be a cultural mainstay, how they construct communities and forge brand partnerships will evolve. What can the past and present reveal concerning the future of influencer marketing? Drawing on takeaways from Taylor Lorenz’s session at our Under the Brandfluence digital event and our latest research, we explore what led to the influencer boom and which future trends will inform the landscape.
What is the future of influencer marketing? The past & present hold clues
According to Goldman Sachs, there are 50 million global creators contributing to the creator economy, which is value roughly $250 billion (a figure that’s expected to double by 2027). As the industry soars, algorithms are only becoming more area of interest and creator content more influential. Growing brand investment in influencer partnerships is rewriting marketing playbooks—evolving the industry for creators and marketers.
How influencer marketing endlessly modified the media landscape
The same Goldman Sachs report found that only 4% of creators pursue a full-time online profession. Much like today, the web’s first influencers (who emerged throughout the blogging era) thought of the web as a side hustle or outlet for creative expression.
As Lorenz explains, “Blogs allowed people to self-publish their very own content. For example, women were writing super candidly about their day by day lives. These were mothers scuffling with breastfeeding or postpartum depression who went on to have hundreds and tens of millions of subscribers or followers. They were talking about topics excluded from women’s media on the time, and redefining motherhood. Really, women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people built this industry.”
Despite their obvious influence and community-constructing expertise, these early influencers were harassed always, discredited for not having “real” jobs and dismissed as narcissists who took too many selfies (“Selfie even became the word of the 12 months in 2013,” Lorenz points out).
“So many early people on these platforms were outcasts. They didn’t have rather a lot of social capital. They didn’t have a voice in traditional media. They built these revenue models that so many individuals have come to profit off of,” says Lorenz.
Many of the negative stereotypes about influencers persevered and intensified through the 2010s. The pandemic era was a serious turning point for influencer acceptance (though, creator harassment won’t ever disappear). Everyone went online, causing many individuals to understand for the primary time that influencers alchemize culture.
Brands rely on influencer marketing
As the lines between social and traditional marketing proceed to blur, old stereotypes are falling away and influencers are gaining credibility. More than half of people between the ages of 18-60 now state they’d quit their jobs if they may grow to be a full-time influencer.
From a partnership perspective, 9 in 10 marketers say sponsored influencer content outperforms brand content in terms of engagement, per the Q1 2025 Sprout Pulse Survey. Another 83% say it converts higher, and 65% are very confident that leaders see the business value of influencer partnerships.
The same survey found that just about two-thirds of marketers plan to partner with more influencers this 12 months. That translates to around 80% of marketing leaders increasing their influencer marketing budget, and about 25% divesting from traditional marketing channels to fund it, per The 2025 Impact of Social Media Marketing Report.
As the pool of creators grows and brands fully realize the potential of influencer marketing, what it means to be an influencer will change. But, in some ways, Lorenz argues, influencers are still doing what they do best: constructing intensely loyal fandoms and creating online culture.
4 predictions for the future of influencer marketing
In the wake of platform shakeups, economic confusion and emerging technology, some query the long-term impact and resonance of influencers. How can influencers proceed to construct revenue streams on emerging networks? Will AI influencers replace them? How can brands find influencers that truly resonate with their audience?
As we glance to the future of influencer marketing, certain answers are coming into focus.
AI will drive operations, not stand in as talent
While data from Sprout’s 2024 version of the State of Influencer Marketing Report points to 37% of all consumers being more concerned with brands that work with AI influencers, Lorenz speculated it is a passing fad. She explains, “We have already got faceless influencers. They’ve been around for an extended time. What people want online is reliability—AI influencers don’t engender trust. Humans do.”
Further, Sprout’s subsequent Q3 2025 Pulse Survey found that just about half of consumers say they’re not comfortable with brands using AI influencers. Full stop.
When brands use AI influencers, it raises concerns about mental property misuse, content originality and real creators’ ability to take part in the creator economy.
Yet, AI does offer something that shall be invaluable to influencers: It makes extremely top quality content easier to provide. Tools like Jasper and Writer make it easier to put in writing and edit posts and captions, while Wondershare Filmora and Descript speed up video editing. “What AI does very effectively is lower the barrier to content creation so influencers can create higher content with less effort. The tools are getting more accessible yearly. More and more top quality content goes to proceed to shift the landscape because of that,” says Lorenz.
Influencer discovery & sourcing shall be rooted in topic relevancy, not demographics
Algorithms are only getting more area of interest. Think about your personal For You Page. It’s built around topics you discover interesting, not necessarily your location, gender, age or the scale of the creators you usually interact with. That’s exactly why brands will lead with the topics creators speak about after they conduct influencer sourcing.
What does this seem like? Historically it’s been highly manual, even with influencer marketing management software. Marketers needed to depend on complex filtering, spend significant time vetting and comb through piles of data to make sure quality results. And even after logging hours of work, the influencer could still find yourself being a poor brand safety fit.
Thankfully, that’s changing. Emerging AI-powered natural language discovery helps brands search based on the content they need to create. This approach ensures influencer content actually matches up along with your brand values and campaign messaging—driving much stronger results.
Influencer marketing won’t be limited to social media
Per The State of Influencer Marketing Report, 80% of consumers usually tend to buy from brands that partner with influencers and creators on projects beyond social media content—like in-person events, brand trips or multi-channel ad campaigns.
We’re already beginning to see influencers slide into spokesperson roles previously held by actors, athletes and other popular culture icons.
Brands are also constructing bottom of funnel influencer partnerships through creator storefront programs, like Lowe’s Creator Network and the brand new My Sephora Storefront.
Expect to see more brands expand their influencer partnerships further than the confines of social. Doing so would require constructing long-term relationships with creators, and tapping into their expertise relating to understanding your shared audience.
Influencer marketing profession paths will flourish
The Impact of Social Report found that three-quarters of marketing leaders anticipate growing their team in the subsequent 12 months, and influencer marketing managers are among the many top five positions they’re more likely to hire for. The increased investment in influencer marketing roles underscores just how legitimate the function has grow to be—especially given the unsteady job market.
Zooming out, this hiring trend gives long-term insight into how marketing leaders are constructing their teams. Influencer relationship management has grow to be a foundational marketing pillar and ROI driver. Influencer programs can’t be scaled in the event that they’re on someone’s plate alongside organic content creation, reporting and other duties. It deserves at the least one dedicated role (if no more), and marketers that hone their skills on this area will grow to be much more priceless to corporations moving forward.
The future belongs to brands that embrace influencers
Influencer marketing rewrote the principles of traditional media. For brands today, it’s a non-negotiable technique to increase discoverability, grow your audience, and even show a direct connection between marketing efforts and revenue.
As platforms evolve and more influencers enter the world, brands that lean into authentic partnerships will proceed to see meaningful returns. The future won’t be defined by AI replacing creators, but by tools that empower them and strategies that prioritize relevancy over vanity metrics. Ultimately, the brands that thrive shall be those who embrace influencers not as a trend, but as long-term partners shaping the subsequent era of marketing.
Download The State of Influencer Marketing Report for a deeper dive into learn how to construct an influencer marketing strategy that breaks through the noise, engages audiences at scale and stands out from competitors.
If you’re attending DMWF Europe in Amsterdam, visit us at Booth 301 or catch our session The Year Social Grew Up: What 2025 Taught Us — and What’s Next at 11:40am on Day 1.
Read the total article here
