The creator economy is facing an authenticity crisis

For years, the creator economy has become increasingly accepted as the future of media. These days, makeup tutorials on TikTok could have the same impact for a brand as a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, and a progressive Twitch streamer can reach a comparable, if not bigger audience, as MSNBC. 

But like digital media before it, the creator economy now faces a multifaceted conundrum that could determine its long term fate: shifting priorities from Meta and X, the potential TikTok ban (which, thanks to an executive order from the Trump administration, has at least a stay of execution), industry consolidation, and AI-enabled content overload. Taken together, these issues could spell the end of the influencer and creator economy as it exists in its current form, according to nearly a dozen industry experts interviewed by Fast Company. 

The appeal of influencers has historically laid with their supposed authenticity. They’re pushing products they believe in or sharing news commentary from an unfiltered perspective, which resonated with consumers. Increasingly, there is a sentiment that this authenticity is fading. And that could spell big long-term changes.

AI: Friend of Foe?

AI tools have made it easier for influencers to break into the marketplace like using ChatGPT to write articles, or Adobe’s text to image maker to make pictures, and Canva’s AI video generator to make clips. By doing so, these products have made it easier to get content out in the world without developing the skills needed to make higher quality programming. That low barrier to entry—and the general proliferation of AI-fueled content across the web—also means it can be difficult for creators to stand out. At the same time, the ubiquity of AI has for many consumers inserted a skepticism around authenticity.

Amazon Web Services researchers believe 57% of online content is already made by AI programs or translated via AI programs. Yet, per a recent Deloitte study, seven out of 10 consumers reportedly think generative AI is ruining the user experience.

That’s already having an impact on how consumers interact with creators and influencers. 

Forty-five percent of 13 to 22 year olds say that influencers don’t have as much sway as they used to, according to a YPulse study. Meanwhile, a survey by EnTribe found 51% of consumers scrolled right past an influencer post that appeared in their feed. 

“In terms of actually using AI as the way to generate ideas to create content, I think we’re just going to get a lot of quantity and not quality,” says Ivy Yang, founder of Wavelet Strategy, a New York-based communications consultancy.

Sure enough, brands have started to catch on to consumer sentiment. A plethora of brands have asked their ad agencies to not use AI in their strategies. Dove notably said it would not use AI-generated content at all.

Are Brand Partnerships Really Helping?

A staggering 61% of 13 to 39-year-olds believe the more ads influencers do, the less they trust them, according to a YPulse survey. 

“As soon as the audience starts to feel like this person isn’t authentic or interesting, they just jump to another person who is seen as more authentic and interesting,” says James Nord, founder and CEO of the influencer marketing company Fohr. 

That authenticity problem is already impacting brands who rely on influencers to push their products. An EnTribe study found that 42% of people who purchased something recommended by influencers regretted that decision which is fueling a credibility crisis. 

“Inauthenticity can trigger swift backlash, and evolving regulations add complexity. As digital trends shift rapidly, sustainable success demands agility and foresight,” says Lizi Sprague, a cofounder of Songue PR.

Brands are progressively spending less on social media marketing all together. A survey of 292 CMOs showed a 23% decline in 2023 and another 11% decline in 2024. Brands are finding more success with more niche “nano-influencers” but that means spreading a wider net and dishing out smaller payouts.

Misinformation Crisis

Influencers played an outsize role in the 2024 presidential election. Both candidates relied heavily on podcast appearances, but ultimately President Donald Trump’s strategy was to tap into the so-called “manosphere,” which ultimately led to his success by helping him court the Gen Z male vote by double-digit margins. 

Now, concerns about the surge in misinformation on platforms like X and TikTok are starting to drive news consumers away. Indeed, a 2023 Gartner survey suggests that influencers being on equal footing with established press may be a short-lived phenomenon. The study found that more than half of consumers plan to pull away from social media as soon as this year, citing the spread of misinformation as one of the top reasons—a big concern with a president now in office known for lying on a regular basis. And per a 2024 study from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 62% of creators admittedly do not verify information before spreading it online.

“Talking to students about their interactions with social media platforms [. . . ] they kind of feel bad about how much time to spend with these platforms,” says Jacob Nelson, a journalism professor at the University of Utah. 

Nelson, who has written about shifts in social media audiences for Harvard’s Nieman Lab, says this is the first time his students aren’t optimistic about the future of social media and are in fact pulling away. “No one among the audience seems all that thrilled with the amount of time that they are investing,” he tells Fast Company.

Will the Creator Economy Survive?

As a cautionary tale, the creator economy ought to look at the digital media sector. 

In the early 2010s, publishers like Vice and Vox seemed almost invincible. But they were ultimately dependent on the whim of tech giants for their own success—particularly Facebook (which was behind the infamous “pivot to video” trend) and Google. Eventually these Silicon Valley power players shifted their strategy—and proved disastrous for publishers who relied on them. 

Websites like BuzzFeed, Gawker, and Mic suddenly faced a massive shift in their own manifest destiny (i.e., a cascade of layoffs and consolidations) often under the control of private equity. Ultimately, these changes left many outlets as husks of their former selves. In 2012 the digital media industry seemed unstoppable; in 2018 alone, it laid off over 15,000 workers, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“The platforms frankly are always going to be optimizing for their own business interests,” says Sterling Proffer, former head of growth for Vice Media.

Fast forward to today: X, Linkedin, and Meta platforms have all shifted key parts of their business model several times in the last couple years and TikTok is still on the chopping block. That’s why those who don’t have the skills to scale their creator offerings outside of one specific platform may not survive—at least if they want to make creating content a full-time job.

“I think that the folks who have been building on that are coming to recognize this element that they’re building on rented land, and there is a need for content creators who can diversify their offerings across platforms and even in real life,” Brett Dashevsky, founder of Creator Economy NYC and the head of Content Creators at Kickstarter, tells Fast Company.

Creators who have a specific skill or insight—say, a chef sharing unique culinary knowledge—will stand the test of time. They can upscale their projects to include in-person events like cooking classes, exclusive dinners, cookbooks, and meal kits. But for those who rose to fame thanks just to brand deals and dance videos, the future may not look so sunny after all.

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