Influencer marketing very quickly became the native way for companies to reach consumers. It’s a way to use familiar faces to instill trust in new products without tapping into costlier celebrity appearances. While the thought of having usernames advertise products more effectively than corporate-created ads was once a fantasy, creator economy and influencer marketing trends fully support the shift.

Based on Collabstr’s 2025 influencer report, the spend per influencer collaboration may be trending downward, it’s not a sign of a failing practice. On the contrary, it’s indicative of a healthy, growing, and increasingly competitive market. Moving further into 2025 and beyond, the creator economy is poised to grow even further. However, there’s much more going on behind the scenes than a steady expansion.

As companies better understand the value of an influencer, the creator economy will evolve and introduce new trends that may change the landscape.

AI Could Change the Creator Economy

Artificial intelligence has been a buzz-phrase for the past couple of years. While many are championing an aggressive integration of AI, the space still stands on shaky ground. With federal courts not supporting the application of copyright laws to AI content, any fully artificial works are afforded no protections. While that may hinder influencers from using AI to create, it may not sway the prevalence of AI influencers.

AI influencers allow companies to keep all aspects of the creator economy in-house. It’s a cost- and time-saving measure, though it may leave influencers feeling uneasy. If artificial intelligence can mimic a flesh-and-blood influencer, why would companies opt for the more expensive, slower alternative? One reason why human influencers will continue to thrive is that so long as AI can’t make that human connection it will always feel a bit more distant than a human influencer to the end user.

AI in regard to influencer marketing will continue to be a hot topic throughout 2025 and beyond, especially as AI improves and garners more support.

User-Generated Content to Take Center Stage

Though the presence of AI may sound doom and gloom, human influencers are still the bread and butter of the creator economy. For companies, it’s not just about putting a notable name behind their product. It’s also about creating a relationship between the product and the consumer — and doing so at a lower cost.

User-generated content (UGC), which is often less polished and overly scripted, has proven to be more authentic than corporate-made ads, making it easier for consumers to connect with the brand. Through 2025, UGC will trend toward being the leading form of influencer-created marketing. Unfortunately, since UGC is cheaper than traditional advertising, influencers will need to charge less than they may have been for standard content to remain competitive.

Prices Will Continue to Trend Downward

An increase in UGC isn’t the only reason influencer earnings will continue to drop. As previously mentioned, the spend per influencer is down. This is largely because the number of available influencers continues to increase, creating competition that ultimately drives prices downward. If companies start threatening the use of AI influencers, influencers may lower their prices further to undercut the savings AI provides and encourage continued partnerships with human influencers.

Usage rights may also play into the dip in influencer costs. Adding content usage rights to an agreement traditionally increases the cost of the campaign. After all, brands will be able to use the influencer-created content in the future. However, influencers who use AI to generate content won’t have the protections of copyright law. Without legalese preventing the use of another’s AI-created content, brands won’t need to enter into more expensive usage rights agreements. They may not lift the content entirely, but it could serve as a basis for future messaging.

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TikTok Will Attract More Brands

Relative to other social media platforms, TikTok is still new. However, it’s almost just as popular as Instagram for influencer marketing. Despite being behind Instagram by about six years, TikTok is nearing its 2 billion monthly active user mark, a milestone Instagram only hit in 2021. The video platform still has a ways to go before it amasses the number of influencers that Instagram accrued, but its trending growth suggests that it won’t be long until they’re tied in that metric.

Working in TikTok’s favor is a better understanding of its core audience. While brands originally thought the platform catered to a much younger demographic, it’s becoming more evident that Gen Z has given ground to millennials. Both demographics have the spending power and understanding of new products that companies want to attract.

TikTok will also attract more brands with its focal shift to TikTok One from the Creator Marketplace, though that may not be great for influencers. TikTok One does allow creators to connect with brands, but it also puts AI-integrated tools at the brand’s disposal. Circling back to the increased presence of AI in influencer marketing, it’s cost-saving while giving companies complete control over their messaging.

Brands Will Look For Long-Term Campaigns

The original model for influencer marketing involved quick campaigns with multiple individuals. It seemed most beneficial to increase reach by targeting broader audiences through a number of influencers. Moving forward, though, brands will emphasize working with niche influencers for longer to establish more impactful and personalized partnerships. Authenticity is important in influencer marketing, and it’s easier to develop that realness by working together over a longer period.

This will likely create more intense competition amongst influencers, as brands will work with fewer parties than before. This, too, will drive down influencer costs as they attempt to be the most appealing option for authentic, long-term content creation.

Influencer Marketing is an Ever-Changing Landscape

In so many ways, influencer marketing is still a new concept to many brands. Year after year, the face of it will change. How influencers are sourced, the nature of the relationships, average costs, and the most popular platforms will fluctuate as brands find the best way to deliver authentic, effective messaging at a suitable cost.

The most pressing trend, though, is likely to be AI. Affordable content that can be created and managed in-house will be most appealing to brands, though using AI will come with a loss of the authenticity that consumers look for. That is, of course, until AI perfects that, too.

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