Top 7 AI Influencers and What Made Them Successful

You scroll through Instagram and see perfect people living perfect lives. What if the influencer you're following isn't a person at all? Some of the biggest stars on the platform are made of pixels, not people. 

These AI influencers on Instagram get brand deals, magazine covers, and millions of followers. Here's a look at the top digital personalities and the code behind their success.

Here is a quick overview of some top AI influencers on Instagram:

1. Lu do Magalu (@magazineluiza)

Image credit: Instagram

Lu began her career in 2003 as a virtual sales assistant at Magazine Luiza, a large retailer in Brazil. She was introduced on YouTube videos in 2009 and has rapidly expanded into a large online phenomenon, reaching over 31 million followers. 

The biggest part of her success is that she has a genuine voice and personality that appeals to Brazilian audiences.

Lu embodies a cultural icon, and was a participant on Dança dos Famosos (Dancing with the Stars Brazil). She has appeared in music videos with top Brazilian artists, including DJ Alok, was the first AI model to be featured on the cover of Vogue Brasil, and was the first virtual influencer to commentate on a live football game on TikTok.

Her portfolio includes international brands like Apple, Burger King, Adidas, and Red Bull, where she was the first non-athlete cartoon influencer.

Lu shows how AI can be useful and fun at the same time. She helps people shop and learn while representing Brazilian culture. From content to Vogue, Lu has reinvented what a virtual influencer can do on Instagram.

2. Lil Miquela (@lilmiquela)

Image credit: Instagram

The company Brud created the AI influencer Lil Miquela in 2016. Brud keeps Miquela at a perpetual age of 19 and boosts her fame by mixing planned controversy with relatable content.

This strategy was revealed to the public in 2018 when Brud staged a "hack" on Miquela’s account by another AI character. This drama made Miquela confess that she was just a robot.

This provocative AI persona attracts major brands. Miquela has modeled for Prada, worked with Calvin Klein, and endorsed products for Samsung and BMW, where she charges around $10,000 per post.

3. Aitana Lopez (@fit_aitana)

Image credit: Instagram

Frustrated with the high costs and how unreliable real human influencers are, The Clueless created Aitana Lopez in 2023. Rubén Cruz and Diana Núñez envisioned Aitana as their ideal influencer: an AI that can work all day, every day, without complaining.

Aitana is creating content for the fitness, video gaming, and fashion niches. Her constant stream of posts highlights the efficiency of AI-powered video editing for social media creators.

Aitana earns money for her agency by selling exclusive content on Fanvue and making sponsored posts for brands like Nike and Olaplex. She brings in a healthy stream of revenue, generating as much as 10,000 euros a month. 

Her success is changing the industry, but it also raises some questions. She takes jobs from human influencers and promotes unrealistic beauty standards, as her appearance was designed to be perfect.

4. Shudu Gram (@shudu.gram)

Image credit: Instagram

A white photographer in Britain gets bored with "painting Barbies." What does he do? In 2017, he created Shudu, an AI supermodel designed to look like South African Ndebele women. 

People immediately praised her for bringing "diversity" to fashion, but she's a digital Black woman created and controlled by a white guy. It's complicated from the start.

Image credit: Ndebele women / Flickr

Her creator, Cameron-James Wilson, designed her to be untouchable. She has hyperreal skin and ideal proportions but comes with none of the human baggage.

Everything was fine until the 2018 Fenty Beauty collab. When Rihanna's brand posted her picture, people lost their minds over how real she looked.

Critics said that Shudu is a simple "digital blackface”, who is stealing the work of actual models. Wilson replied that he was helping the cause, which is a neat way to avoid talking about who's making money off her image.

5. Kenza Layli (@kenza.layli)

Image credit: Instagram

Kenza Layli became famous quickly after becoming Miss AI 2024, instantly making her a Moroccan AI figure. Her hijab isn't just clothing but actually a message about Muslim women in tech.

She uses social media and implements a different twist of Moroccan culture and business wear, but her messages tend to be the same, asking for Muslim women in technology.

Her formula is simple, but effective, and the hijab is the symbol. Her 24/7 availability in seven languages creates a real connection. And behind the scenes, a 13-person team works full-time to create her "real" personality, resulting in over 210k followers and a growing conversation about diversity and inclusion.

6. Imma (@imma.gram)

Image credit: Instagram

Imma, Tokyo’s AI punk starlet, who is known for her hot pink bob and street-style outfits, has one simple goal: give us proof that AI can be cooler than humans. Created by Aww Inc. to be Japan’s answer to influencer fatigue, she never has scandals, never ages, and simply jumps on every new trend.

Her formula is simple: be omnipresent but never "present." She easily moves from a cyber-Kimono partnership with Dior to Balenciaga's runways. Imma is also featured in J-pop music videos, drops limited edition NFTs, and “dates” real celebrities for tabloid fodder.

This approach makes her highly profitable, and she charges ¥1.2M ($8k) per post. Brands pay handsomely for Gen Z access without having to endure the headaches of human influencers in Tokyo. Imma isn’t real, but she makes people ask: Is your favorite influencer human or AI?

7. Noonoouri (@noonoouri)

Image credit: Instagram

Meet Noonoouri, the doll-faced digital influencer created by German designer Joerg Zuber. Her whole strategy is to use a kind of artificial innocence. Noonoouri never actually speaks and just posts high fashion photos with some captions about "saving the planet."

It seems too much like selective activism. One day she will do a partnered campaign with Gucci for "vegan leather" and conveniently ignore the carbon footprint of the brand. Then the next day, she poses with endangered species for WWF and doesn't say a word about the waste problem in the fashion industry.

Brands like Valentino pay quite well for this with Noonoouri charging around €10,000 for a single post.

The Future of Influence

By 2030, things are going to get a bit weird. Get ready for AI influencers that act like real humans, learning your biases to exploit them. Tools that help create an AI influencer will become more sophisticated.

The entire question of “authenticity” will reverse as human influencers will act like perfect robots, while the AI bots will have “imperfections” built in to render them more believable.

Maybe we'll even see AI influencer accounts pushing crypto scams or political agendas. It makes you think twice about who you follow.