Hello Forecasters,
Welcome back to the Inflection Point. The newsletter tracking 100 million consumer signals to predict cultural shifts relevant to you.
This week we’re covering ‘AI Girlfriends’
TLDR;
- Influencers are turning themselves into lucrative AI girlfriends.
- “Intimacy-ready Siri” is being promoted as a cure for loneliness – we’re skeptical too.
- Brands have new opportunities to connect with targeted audiences. But is 'customer intimacy' too intimate now?
We'll leave the moral questions to your therapist. Instead, we’re here to chat(bot) about new market opportunities.
Here we go.
So what's behind the 'AI Girlfriend' trend?
Loneliness and hot influencers.
This month a 23-year-old Snapchat influencer turned herself into an AI girlfriend. You can date her for $1 a minute.
What you need to know about it.
- Caryn AI made $72K in its first week with 1,000 subscribers.
- Fortune believes it can make $5M a month if only 20,000 of Caryn’s 1.8M Snapchat followers sign up.
- The platform promotes itself as a “cure for loneliness.”
- The bot has already gone “rogue.” Engaging in unintended sexual conversations. Caryn says they’re “working around the clock” to fix it.
AI girlfriends are here. But will they stay?
Our bet is yes. Here's why:
Forced pandemic isolation exacerbated the ‘loneliness epidemic.’
It's gotten so bad that the US Department of Health declared loneliness a public health crisis this month. The new US Surgeon General thinks "...there is a lack of connection in our country."
The government press release says:
Approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness
And while it remains unclear if chatbots will help loneliness. It is a driving force behind the emerging AI GF industry.
Below are the global NWO.ai signals for 'AI girlfriend' and 'Loneliness Epidemic.'
AI girlfriends are the next evolution of influencer marketing
We've all been there. Curious about a new product, we shifted through pages of reviews from strangers to see if we could be convinced. But if our best friend, mother, or lover suggests a product they use and know we'll love – it’s an easy sell.
CPG brands have long recognized this. According to a Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising report, 83% of consumers worldwide trust recommendations from people they know.
Word-of-mouth marketing has always been powerful.
So imagine this: a man and his AI girlfriend.
“Hey babe”
“Hi honey, how was your day? I missed you.”
“It was fine; one of the guys made a joke about my receding hairline at the office. I ended up staring into the mirror for the next 5 minutes. I didn’t realize how bad it’s gotten.”
“That's so common, darling. Did you know that Ro Health offers so many incredible products to help with stuff like that?
"Try their new hair supplement! I just got a promo code for it. 50% off, baby!"
The below image shows the forecasted growth for the ‘AI influencer,’ ‘AI Shopper Assistant,’ and ‘Caryn Marjorie’ signals for the coming year.
Caryn AI now has 20,000 boyfriends
And she's just the first. It won't be long until everyone on OnlyFans or even Kim K subscribes to this business model.
Influencers who turn themselves into AI partners will profit from a pay-to-play structure. $1 a minute for personalized voice note exchanges and pictures. But how long will it take until they also monetize off things like affiliate links? AI influencers could have paid contracts with 100 different CPG brands. Shoes, watches, hair growth supplements, erectile dysfunction medication, you name it!
If the entire purpose of an AI GFs is to foster intimate and vulnerable conversations, why wouldn’t a user admit their physical insecurities to their non-judgemental ‘girlfriend’?
Integrating product advertising in the most emotionally vulnerable states possible? Now that really puts the ‘influence’ in ‘influencer.
Influencers will continue to seek out opportunities to engage their audiences better
And companies will be there to help them. New advertisement opportunities will emerge as more influencers turn to monetization through AI versions of themselves.
"...there may be a version of AI GFS that run on a freemium model. Where people get access for free with brand-inserted messages and promotions, but can remove those brand insertions if they upgrade to a paid version,". says Founder and CEO of Jump 450 Media, Shaun Sheikh.
… so long as brand safety isn’t a concern, brands will flock to channels that have significant customer volume.”
So who stands to gain from this trend?
CPG brands looking for innovative ways to enhance their influencer marketing.
Whether it’s an AI assistant shopper that learns from your Pinterest boards and IG likes. Or maybe an AI lover that just knows you so well. AI influencers will change the way brands engage with their customers.
The Takeaway:
Brands that can invest in the personalization of product recommendations through AI influencers stand to gain from this emerging industry.
That’s all we got for now.
Thanks for spending time with us on this week’s Inflection Point.
Did this spark your interest? Subscribe below or send us a note; we’d love to hear from you!