The influencer manager’s job is dead, and the industry needs to stop pretending otherwise. Bit by bit, AI is automating everything about the brand-influencer relationship—selection, segmentation, engagement, optimization, and incentive balancing.
It may be blunt, but it’s true: AI does a far better job of these tasks than an influencer manager ever could.
However, the rise of AI doesn’t just wipe out the old role; it creates a new one. Instead of curating and negotiating, brands will need someone who sets the strategy, teaches the system what good looks like, and runs communities at massive scale. We’re heading towards a future where one person moves from managing 50 influencers to 100,000+ advocates.
Why the Influencer Manager Role Is Dead
The old role was built on a fundamentally flawed assumption: that influence comes from a handful of creators you can pay.
In reality, consumers don’t buy because a brand works with 50 influencers. They buy because thousands of real advocates, existing customers, superfans, microinfluencers, and local community figures create and share content organically. Some beauty brands already understand this shift. Charlotte Tilbury, for instance, has scaled advocacy far beyond a traditional influencer program by mobilizing tens of thousands of real customers, makeup artists, and superfans who create authentic content at global scale. Their community-generated content consistently outperforms traditional influencer campaigns because it reflects genuine product love, not paid promotion. This kind of advocacy has a far greater impact on buying behavior than any traditional influencer model ever could.
So yes, the role is dead, but it doesn’t leave a void in its wake. The influencer manager goes from being someone who engages with paid influencers to someone who builds the advocacy strategy and trains AI to take on the manual tasks at scale.
Why Brands Are Ignoring Their True Advocates
There are influencer managers out there investing extortionate amounts on 50 influencers, yet they’re ignoring the 50,000 true advocates participating in word-of-mouth promotion purely because they love and believe in the brand. Why is that the case?
At the heart of the problem lies an inability to scale influencer engagement and reach those genuine advocates. Even the most powerful influencer’s content rarely reaches beyond their immediate follower base. Meanwhile, thousands of loyal customers and local voices are already reaching your prospective buyer’s feed, with content that resonates far more deeply.
There’s an element of trust that just doesn’t exist among traditional influencers. They have a role to play, there’s no doubt about that, but brands are missing out on the value of authentic advocates. They’re the ones driving measurable impact through higher engagement, stronger trust, and more conversions; what ultimately creates far greater advocacy value for the brand.
The traditional influencer manager doesn’t have the bandwidth to identify, nurture, and mobilize this army of true advocates. But AI does. And someone needs to stand at the helm, instructing and managing AI to turn these untapped advocates into a highly organized, scalable network.
The influencer manager’s job may be dead, but a new, more strategic responsibility is taking its place.
Introducing the Advocacy Engineer
The gap in the market is clear: Brands need one person to run their extensive advocate communities; this is the model that will drive brand-building and growth by emphasizing authenticity, scale, and cost.
An advocacy engineer is that one person. Unlike traditional influencer managers who chase a handful of creators, advocacy engineers focus on the people who already love the brand and help them amplify their voice. These individuals include customers, superfans, employees, and community figures. AI then handles the operational tasks like identifying these advocates, segmenting audiences, and tracking engagement—all so the advocacy engineer can focus on building strategy and nurturing communities.
The Future of Influencer Marketing
True advocacy, amplifying the voices of a brand’s existing customer base, is a model every brand can benefit from, and the advocacy engineer is the one to make it all happen.
By focusing on advocacy instead of influence, retailers across the board can build long-term relationships that outlast the short-term transactions. Laying the groundwork now sets brands up for a future founded on connected and community-driven growth. This approach to advocacy, powered by AI and community insight, will push brands to the forefront of innovation and nurture a loyal customer base of brand fans that stand against the test of time.
Influencer marketing is going out to people and asking if they will talk about you. Advocacy is amplifying the voices of the people who already love you. Only one will stand the test of time.
