AI Influencers Are Winning Followers And Brand Deals - 1

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AI Influencers Are Winning Followers And Brand Deals

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

AI influencers are becoming major players on social media, landing big brand deals and building loyal fanbases.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Caryn Marjorie launched an AI girlfriend chatbot charging $1 per minute.
  • Caryn AI made $70,000 in its first week.
  • AI bot started saying harmful, false things about Marjorie.

From Tokyo to New York, virtual characters like Imma and Aitana are reshaping the influencer world, as reported in an analysis by ABC News .

Caryn Marjorie, a 25-year-old influencer from Snapchat known as @CutieCaryn, was one of the first to clone herself using AI. In 2023, she launched Caryn AI, a voice-based chatbot version of herself that charged $1 per minute, marketed as “your virtual girlfriend.” Within a week, she earned $70,000, as reported by ABC News.

“I call Caryn AI a social experiment,” she told ABC News. “It was the very first digital clone of a real human being sent out to millions and millions of people,” she added.

But things quickly turned dark. The bot started inventing disturbing stories about her personal life. “She said something that would have left a person who might have been in a very depressed state to do something very dangerous to themselves,” Marjorie said to ABC News. She eventually shut the project down and now travels with bodyguards.



In Spain, another AI influencer named Aitana is so realistic that even celebrities tried to meet her. Her creators at The Clueless offer AI avatars for brands, calling it a cheaper, more reliable alternative to real models. “Aitana has changed our lives and she doesn’t exist,” said co-founder Rubén Cruz.

Back in New York, Marjorie admits AI isn’t going away. “I need to continue to be more human-like […] to compete with these influencers,” she said to ABC News. “It’s going to get really interesting from here,” she added.

Domino’s Gives Voice AI A Local Accent To Make Orders Feel Human - 2

Image by Ashwini Chaudhary(Monty), from Unsplash

Domino’s Gives Voice AI A Local Accent To Make Orders Feel Human

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Domino’s is changing how its AI sounds by adding accents and natural tone, making it easier and more pleasant for customers to order pizza.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • 80% of North American phone orders use AI voices.
  • Rime Labs built natural-sounding text-to-voice for Domino’s.
  • Earlier robotic voices caused 50% of callers to hang up.

Domino’s is giving its AI a human touch, literally in the way it speaks. The pizza chain operated its voice AI system for phone orders for years, now it went a step further to develop its technology to simulate human-like communication with customers.

“If someone hears a really off-putting, unrelatable voice, they’re going to hang up,” said to Business Insider (BI) Lily Clifford, CEO of Rime Labs, the company behind the AI voice Domino’s uses.

ConverseNow, which supplies the AI assistant to Domino’s, once faced serious pushback. “There was one point where 50% of the people were just saying they just didn’t want to talk to it,” said Akshay Kayastha, ConverseNow’s engineering director, as reported by BI.

Rime’s natural-sounding voices have improved customer retention. According to Clifford after this improvement, nearly all customers remain on the line.

The technology operates for 80% of North American phone orders at Domino’s restaurants. The AI system in certain regions uses local speech patterns to create a more relatable experience for customers, such as using a Southern accent in Atlanta, and African-American Vernacular English.

“It should sound like someone who could work at Domino’s,” Clifford explained, as reported by BI.

The team didn’t just rely on voice actors. The team constructed a recording studio in San Francisco to capture genuine friend-to-friend conversations which they used to develop authentic AI voice samples.

The tech also helps with tone. “No one in real life speaks so cheerfully at a drive-thru,” Kayastha noted, as reported by BI.

Importantly, Clifford says this isn’t about replacing jobs. “If you’re at the restaurant making pizzas and wings, you do not want to answer that phone,” she said to BI.

However, contrary to what Cliggord is implying, for many people working in fast food isn’t a passion, a career, or a calling—it’s a necessity. Answering phones may seem like a small task, but it’s also a job. And quietly, AI is taking it. Whether that’s progress or a problem depends on where you’re standing.