New independent research by global creator-first social agency, Billion Dollar Boy, reveals rising investment in creator content that utilises generative AI with four in five marketers (79%) increasing spend in the last 12 months.
A further 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.
AI Efficiencies And Performance Driving Reallocation
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81% of marketers agree that generative AI has made creator collaborations more cost-efficient.
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73% of marketers and 78% of creators agree that content they’ve produced by integrating generative AI as part of the process performs better than traditional creator content – creator content produced exclusively by humans.
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A majority of creators (84%) agree that generative AI has alleviated their workload.
Creator Adoption Mirrors Marketer Investment
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In response to rising investment, 87% of creators have increased the use of AI in their content creation process in the past year; a further 86% plan to increase again in the next 12 months.
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Increased ad spend is providing an incentive for greater creator adoption, with 85% of creators saying AI has boosted their potential earnings.
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 – with two in five (40%) consumers aged 25-34 preferring 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).
These swings correlate with the rise in low-effort, mass produced AI content, or AI ‘slop’, across consumer social media feeds. 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.
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2023 |
2025 |
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Percentage of consumers who prefer generative AI creator content to traditional creator content |
60% |
Percentage of consumers who prefer generative AI creator content to traditional creator content |
26% |
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Percentage of consumers who predicted AI would positively disrupt the creator economy |
34% |
Percentage of consumers who agree AI has positively disrupted the creator economy |
31% |
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Percentage of consumers who predicted AI would negatively disrupt the creator economy |
18% |
Percentage of consumers who agree AI has negatively disrupted the creator economy |
32% |
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Percentage of consumers who predicted AI would improve the quality of creator content |
35% |
Percentage of consumers who agree AI has improved the quality of creator content |
38% |
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Percentage of consumers who predicted AI would improve the diversity of creator content |
35% |
Percentage of consumers who agree AI has improved the diversity of creator content |
41% |
Thomas Walters, Chief Innovation Officer, Billion Dollar Boy, comments: “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.
“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.
“Despite this swing, the creators surveyed are reporting an increase in performance of content they have produced utilising generative AI as part of the process. So it’s clear that there remains considerable consumer appetite and interest where it’s applied correctly.
“There is a huge opportunity for creators and marketers who apply generative AI creatively and strategically. As marketers pivot their AI strategies from test-and-learn pilots to long-term investment plays, the winners will be those who find the right balance between machine capability and human creativity and who champion quality over quantity.
“As we enter the next stage of AI’s growth in the creator economy, spend alone won’t guarantee success. Brands and creators must work with forward thinking experts to navigate them through a more challenging post-AI creator economy.”
This research forms part of Billion Dollar Boy’s upcoming report: Muse Two: The Real Impact of AI on the Creator Economy, set for release on October 16, 2025. It is the second volume in a series of reports by Billion Dollar Boy exploring generative AI. The first, Muse One: How Generative AI is Influencing the Creator Economy, launched in November 2023 following the creation of Billion Dollar Boy’s innovation unit, Muse, in April 2023.
The first edition explored AI’s early impact on the industry, during the technology’s honeymoon phase. Two years later, the new report examines how opinions have shifted and explores the technology’s expansion into new areas, including: the rise of ‘vibe marketing’, AI creator personas, ethical blind spots, and its impact on trust in creator marketing.
