AI cuts influencers’ costs, but brands still pay full price for trust
With AI streamlining scripting, editing, and analytics, creators are cutting costs but charging smarter, as authenticity and audience trust remain their biggest currency.
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India’s influencer marketing industry has seen explosive growth: valued at approximately Rs 3,600 crore in 2024 and expected to grow by around 25% through 2025. The broader creator economy is also thriving, with estimates placing between 3.5 and 4.5 million influencers in the country and a staggering 22% compound annual growth rate.
Amidst this churn, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a vital accelerator: over 60% of industry players now actively use AI for influencer identification and campaign optimization, according to the Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2025.
AI may be rewriting the rules of content creation, but it isn’t rewriting the price tags of influencers, at least not in the way many brands might expect. As AI tools democratize scripting, editing, and analytics, creators are finding ways to produce faster, sharper, and more data-driven campaigns.
But industry voices say this efficiency is not leading to bargain deals for brands. Instead, it is giving influencers more leverage to justify their fees and, in some cases, command higher rates.
“The core value influencers offer- authenticity, trust, and cultural relevance, remains unchanged,” said Himanshu Rawat, Business Management Team at NOFILTR. “Creators who skillfully use AI to enhance storytelling and output often command higher fees, not lower. AI isn’t diminishing their value, it’s enabling them to deliver better impact, making them even more valuable partners for brands.”
Why fees aren’t falling
AI-powered tools may have reduced production costs by cutting reliance on scriptwriters, editors, or design teams, but creators stress that pricing depends on far more than production. “Brands invest in influence, credibility and community connection,” Rawat added. “Those are not things AI can replace.”
Gautam Madhavan, Founder and CEO of Xley.ai, echoed the sentiment.
“The core value for brands lies not just in content creation but in the influencer’s personality, credibility, and connection with their audience. AI supports production, but it cannot replace the trust influencers have built with their followers.”
For brands, that means fees are less about polished video output and more about who is delivering the message. As Madhavan put it, “Rather than a reduction, brands are often expecting faster turnaround times and higher-quality content at similar or slightly better prices.”
Earlier, the cost equation was: “My effort + my editor’s fees.” Now it’s shifted to: “I can deliver more content, with faster turnarounds and stronger storytelling.” In fact, Mayank Gandotra Director - Content and Growth Strategy , VerSe Colab points out that some influencers are even charging a premium for speed, for example, brands needing a festival campaign reel within 24 hours are willing to pay a rush fee, and AI makes this level of delivery possible.
"AI enables localization, from auto-translation and dubbing to customizing content for diverse Indian audiences. The result: lower production effort and cost, but higher creativity, personalization, and ROI, allowing influencers to deliver more impactful campaigns without reducing their fees," he shares.
How fee structures are evolving
The economics of influencer partnerships are shifting, but not downward. Independent and mid-tier creators, who earlier had to rely on external help for editing or scripting, are now able to save costs by working with AI-powered tools. Many, however, are choosing to reinvest those savings into experimenting with new formats or scaling their output.
“AI has significantly lowered the hurdles for creators, but these cost savings haven’t led to lower fees,” said Rawat. “Instead, influencers are evolving fee structures to capture new value- faster delivery, more sophisticated storytelling, and higher campaign impact.”
Madhavan added that the flexibility created by AI has split the market: “Some are able to maintain competitive rates while retaining higher margins, while established creators may use AI to scale up and charge more for quicker deliverables.”
Influencer rates in India vary significantly, ranging from Rs 5,000- Rs 25,000 for nano-influencers to Rs 50,000- Rs 2,00,000 for mid-tier and Rs 2,00,000+ for macro/celebrity influencers per post, depending on follower count, engagement, niche, platform, and campaign complexity.
According to Kalyan Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of KlugKlug, AI adoption is also nudging brands toward more performance-based models.
“Some brands are shifting to commission-based pricing for conversions, so pricing is becoming value-driven, not cheaper,” he said.
What AI brings to branded content
While production efficiency is the most visible benefit, AI is also redefining how influencers align content with brand goals.
From predictive analytics that flag trending topics to tools that analyze audience sentiment and fake engagement, AI is making campaigns more targeted and measurable.
“At KlugKlug, we’ve developed systems where a simple prompt generates the perfect script: hooks, content, and CTAs- based on an influencer’s followers’ interests,” Kumar explained. “It’s designed to succeed better than what the influencer alone might have envisioned.”
For creators themselves, AI is a support system that allows them to stretch content across platforms and formats.
Aditi Agrawal, a digital creator with 1.5 million Instagram followers, said, “AI makes things quicker and easier, like coming up with ideas, writing captions, or editing videos. It also helps us repurpose content across different platforms.
But at the end of the day, people connect with people, not tools. AI makes the process smoother, but it’s still the human connection that makes content impactful.”
In other words: AI is not devaluing influence- it’s amplifying it.
AI is making influencers more efficient, not expendable. For brands, this means not discounts, but faster turnarounds, sharper storytelling, and measurable ROI. For creators, it means healthier margins, scalable workflows, and new ways to justify value.
