Journal of African Development

The marketing of influencers is emerging as one of the very powerful ways to reshape the consumer buying decisions in today’s digital economy and both AI-powered and human influencers are changing the way brands interact with their audiences. Even, human influencers continue to be the most dominated influencers due to their authenticity and emotional relatability, while the acceleration of virtual influencers are trending in digital commerce that hasn’t been fully explored yet. This study aims to assess and contrast the impact that influencers generated by AI and human influencers on consumer buying decisions. A quantitative descriptive research method was used and structured questionnaires were used to obtain the data and sent by using social media platforms to 100 active social media users, who are representative of consumer who use technology. The collected data was analysed with the help of SPSS software using percentage analysis to understand the trends of awareness, trust and buying behaviour of consumers. The results revealed that human influencers are much better than AI influencers at building trust, making emotional connections and driving actual purchase among consumers. 68% of respondents said they were influenced by human recommendations, whereas only 12% said they were influenced by AI-based ones, surprisingly 54% consumers denied the exposure towards AI-generated influencers. AI influencers have the potential to be scalable and novel but their limited authenticity and perceived emotional disconnect restrict their persuasive power. These results highlight that marketers need to find a way to blend the realness of human influencers with the technology benefits of artificial intelligence in order to create hybrid campaigns that appeal to both the rational and emotive parts of making decisions among consumers. This study offers empirical evidence which uniquely adds value to the existing literature on consumer psychology in digital era and influencer marketing. It not only shows how human influencers always be important but it also shows the importance of understanding how AI-driven personalities can complement with human influencer to shape the future of digital commerce..