Social Media AI: How to Use AI to Connect with Your Viewers (2025)

There’s nothing new to reduce your social media marketing strategy using artificial intelligence (AI). However, the arrival of more advanced AI tools has an undeniable impact on how brands use social media. 66% of marketers say AI is improving their influencer marketing campaigns, while 63% reporting an increase in revenue.

Since its introduction, AI applications on social media have evolved to include advanced analytics, logo recognition, and content creation, especially at an unprecedented scale. Experts predict that by 2026, approximately half of all social media posts by businesses will be generated by AI. However, James Nord, founder of influencer marketing platform Fohr, does not view AI as an alternative to human creativity. He sees it as a tool to enhance it.

“We’ve given everyone in the world a camera (smartphone), but only a few can use that tool to tell interesting stories worth consuming. James said the key to a brand is to connect with your audience through storytelling. Read on to learn how to promote authentic connections with your audience while unlocking the ROI of AI social media tools.

New uses for social media AI tops

As both analytical and generative AI tools evolve, their capabilities redefine what is possible in social media marketing and content creation. But just because these abilities are trending now doesn’t mean they have lasting power.

Here are some new uses for AI on social media:

Refined data analysis

AI can analyze huge amounts of data and generate insights faster than previous technologies, allowing brands to analyse user behavior in a more nuanced way.

Here is an example. Knowing when and how to post a basic element of a social media strategy is no longer a question of guesswork. AI tracks user behavior and engagement patterns, identifying the best performing content and recommending the best time to publish social media posts, thereby increasing visibility and audience engagement.

At Fohr, James and his team take this a step further, using AI to analyze content and audience sentiment at scale. Within its own influencer marketing app, James’ team uses AI to classify creator content (such as travel, parenting, outdoors, fashion), identify the most performant creators within a particular category within a particular category, and report emerging trends to clients.

“If you look around posts of 50 influencers, for example, “When you have faces in, it’s 20% better, but if it’s a picture of a landscape, that’s not,” says James. “AI helps us understand what works with all these different people and these tens of thousands of posts.”

However, he also highlights the importance of achieving statistical significance on large, diverse data sets, warning creators and strategists overanalyzing feeds at individual levels. “Many creators only post feeding 10 times a month,” explains James. “There are too many variables to be able to pinpoint exactly what’s going on. Ultimately, it gives something more false positive than insight.”

Image generation and filtering

Tools like Dall-E and Midjourney allow influencers, brands and social media teams to generate content in seconds. These AI-generated images that can be further improved with automated editing tools and filters (such as those available in Shopify Magic) are often used for branded social media posts, ad creatives, and product mockups.

Heinz gained notoriety for his early expressions of creativity supported by AI when he asked Dall-e 2 to generate images of ketchup. Rethinking this human-centered “Draw Ketchup” campaign led customers to draw seasonings from memory in 2021, creating a collage of Heinz-esque visuals used in prints and social media ads.

In addition to expanding the creators’ ability to create digital art, image generation tools can promote performance insights by allowing brands to test and split multiple versions of their content almost instantly.

Brands are gaining cost savings by using AI to enhance the creative output of their campaigns. For example, digital content agency Shattlerock has revealed the AI-enabled creative process for Corona Extra’s Pinterest campaign. By reusing existing brand assets and adding generated images to AI, agents (and brands) could do more with time and money.

While AI-assisted creativity can promote conversation and cost savings, James emphasizes the importance of human creative direction, perspective, and audience connections for success in society. “If your creators use AI to supplement their workflows, what you’re paying for is still the community and perspective,” he says. “Creators are still dictating that. They’re just using a different tool instead of using cameras. In fact, they don’t change the basic basics of space.”

Text generation and copywriting

Tools like ChatGpt and Jasper help brands write captions, ads and campaign headlines faster than before. AI tools are intended to create content optimized for tone, emotion, and keyword use, and most can be trained to mimic writing styles.

Just like image generation, AI text generation works best when used to write more efficiently, rather than as an alternative to exploiting your own voice. One way to inject creativity into AI-generated text is to reuse long-form content such as blogs, podcasts, books, and more. Tools such as Hootsuite, Feedhive, and Spiral’s OwlyWriter AI automate the process of reusing long-form content in social media content optimized for a variety of social channels.

Ultimately, AI-generated captions and content allow businesses to manage more accounts, campaigns and content streams without increasing staffing. AI tools for social media management can effectively expand your marketing efforts even for small teams. A recent McKinsey report shows that 37% of companies using AI in their marketing efforts have reduced their marketing costs by up to 19%.

Virtual Influencer

One of the most headlined AI trends is the rise of AI-generated virtual influencers such as Shudu, Miquela and Imma, who are affiliated with well-known brands such as Fenty, Prada and TEDX, respectively (including mixed reviews). In addition to deeper control over messaging, brands can save a significant amount of money by working with AI influencers. A Harvard Business Review report shows that celebrity partnerships cost up to $250,000 per post, while one of the most popular AI influencers only costs $9,000.

However, James is skeptical of the possibility of building a lasting brand with AI-generated influencers, as he believes it’s a step off because of the reasons people spend time on social media first. “If you suddenly start to spend your time looking at content from people who don’t exist,” he explains in detail.

Scaling Influencer Engagement

Human influencers also use AI to scale reach and engagement via chatbots that interact with fans on behalf of their fans. These bots mimic the influencer’s voice and tone and get caught up in comments, tagged mentions, and direct messages. Combined with AI-powered social listening, brands or influencers can accommodate viewers 24 hours a day.

Chatbots like these raise important questions about disclosure so that users can understand when chatting with a bot with a human. James also questioned whether influencers actually want to automate user engagement with fans.

“When I talk about DMS with most creators, there are a lot of people who say, “I bought this thing I suggested, thank you!” “I say it. But some say, “I moved to New York for you or you have really struggled to help me with my life.” I don’t want people to have such a societal relationship with such machines. ”

Ethical considerations for AI on social media

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into social media, its long-term impact remains unknown. “AI will be a big part of society, but in a way, it will have a lesser influence than people think,” predicts James. “The ethical aspect of (using AI on social media) will be a big part of the conversation.”

Conversations surrounding AI on social media raise complex ethical questions that brands cannot ignore. From deepfakes to data privacy, a social media tool with creativity and efficiency blurred around trust and transparency. “This becomes a complicated (issue) for the platform to understand,” James says.

privacy

AI thrives with data, but without proper safeguards it could go beyond ethical policies regarding how customer data is collected and used, and violate data privacy laws and norms. The FTC recently reported that large social media companies such as Baitedan and Meta collect a substantial amount of user data without providing insight into how artificial intelligence systems and social media platforms use them.

Consumers who are misinformed and misleading

Content generated by AI can blur the line between facts and fiction. Deepfakes and synthetic media (content created or modified by AI) challenge the reliability of user-generated content and raise concerns about the transparency of online information. AI-generated avatars based on the portraits of influencers or paid actors further blur the line between user-generated content and ads.

Deepfakes identified as important global risks in 2024 are on the rise. According to the Deloitte Report, there was a 550% increase between 2019 and 2023. This spread has been driven by extensive access to generative AI tools, making it easier for bad actors to expand Deepfark’s content and spread misinformation.

bias

AI reflects biases inherent in the data being trained. In other words, automated community moderation or content generation can inadvertently reinforce harmful stereotypes or rule out marginalized voices. For example, a study conducted by the Pulitzer Center found that AI algorithms embedded harmful stereotypes about women into social media platforms.

However, in some cases, you can take advantage of AI bias forever. The Center for Human Rights Research reports that AI could potentially be a powerful tool for detecting and mitigating hate speech, flagging misinformation, and identifying human rights issues on social media platforms.