Four in five marketers (79%) are increasing their investment in AI-generated creator content, according to new research from Billion Dollar Boy.

Yet consumer enthusiasm for AI-generated content has declined. One in four (26%) consumers prefer generative AI creator content over traditional creator content, which marks a steep decline from the 60% who preferred AI creator content in 2023.

The disconnect will perhaps provide food for thought for the growing number of marketing leaders asking for AI influencers, without a clear brief on why they want them in the first place. 

AI is driving the creator economy 

Billion Dollar Boy surveyed 6,000 consumers, creators and marketers across the US and UK to explore industry opinion of generative AI in the creator economy, providing an insight into how AI is driving the creator economy.

Three quarters (77%) of marketers plan to divert a greater proportion of advertising budgets from traditional creator content - content produced exclusively by humans - and (77%) from other marketing channels to generative AI-powered creator content in the next twelve months.

Three quarters (76%) of marketers also believe AI will increase total creator economy ad spend next year, as part of an accelerating shift in industry budgets towards AI-powered creator marketing.

With 71% of US marketers and 52% of UK marketers now investing more than $1m annually in creator marketing, the research shows how AI has become an important and significant driver of growth for the creator economy and reveals the scale of budget reallocation across the wider advertising industry. 

Growing scourge of AI ‘'slop’ is splintering consumer sentiment 

Consumers continue to see the potential of AI to improve the quality (38%) and diversity (41%) of creator content, showing that they can appreciate when AI is used intentionally in the creative process and enhances originality, rather than replacing it. 

Optimism for the technology’s future sustainability in the creator economy remains particularly high among younger audiences. Two in five (40%) of consumers aged 25-34 prefer generative AI-powered creator content compared to traditional creator content.

However, simultaneously there has been a sharp increase in consumer skepticism represented in a 44% drop in preference overall since Billion Dollar Boy originally conducted research in 2023.  

What’s more, in 2023 34% of consumers predicted AI would positively disrupt the creator economy vs 18% who thought it would negatively disrupt it. In the period since, the proportion of consumers who feel the technology has been a positive and a negative disruptor is now at parity (31% and 32% respectively). 

This shift towards more negative sentiment tracks with the rise of low-effort, mass produced AI content, now known as ‘AI Slop’ across consumers’ social media feeds.

A disconnect between volume and value

AI enables 87% of creators to produce more content, and 44% of consumers agree that AI has increased content volume, but more doesn’t mean better. Ultimately, consumers aren’t rejecting AI, but how it’s often used. They respond when AI enhances creativity, but not when it's used to churn out repetitive, low-quality output. 

Thomas Walters, Chief Innovation Officer at Billion Dollar Boy, explained: “Our research shows that consumers continue to recognise and appreciate the capacity of well considered and integrated generative AI applications to improve the quality and diversity of creator content and a growing rejection of poorly produced content.”

He continued: “When Billion Dollar Boy first researched AI’s potential in the creator economy 2023, the appearance of generative AI creator content present on platforms was obvious & novel. Fast forward to the present day, the novelty has worn off, and mass produced, unlabelled, and poorly conceived AI ‘slop’ is driving the negative sentiment we are seeing.