AI in Influencer Marketing - vetting, engagement and brand safety

The rise of AI in influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has exploded in recent years. More brands - including those outside traditional “endemic” industries - are investing in creators, and agencies are handling a growing wave of requests. Yet the way many teams still vet channels is outdated: manual, slow, and prone to bias. To keep up, softstory has integrated large language models (LLMs) into all of our internal vetting tools, making the process faster, more consistent, and more effective for clients.

The Human + AI Partnership

At softstory, we believe that AI is here to help us, not replace us. We use LLMs to handle scale, repetition, and pattern recognition, while Campaign Specialists bring context, brand voice, and final judgment. Together, they reduce errors and speed up the process significantly. We empower top performers, making their work even more efficient and accurate. This partnership shows how AI tools for influencer marketing are best used: as a co-pilot, not a replacement.

Necessity, Not a Luxury

The creator economy is larger than ever: YouTube now has over 65 million creators [source], TikTok counts around 1.5 million [source], and Twitch sees more than 7 million active streamers [source]. For agencies, even a single campaign pitch can involve sifting through hundreds of potential creators before presenting options to the client.

Traditionally, campaign specialists rely on gut instinct and surface-level stats, skimming lists and making judgment calls under pressure. But to avoid bias and maximize client value, AI in influencer marketing has become less of an experiment and more of a necessity.

Automated First-Line Vetting

Our internal tools - soon to be available directly to clients - can review hundreds of channels in minutes. Depending on the complexity of the campaign, the AI model scans video titles, descriptions, and comment sections, ranking channels based on alignment with the brand. Instead of starting from scratch, our specialists receive a curated list ready for human review. This hybrid approach blends automation speed with human insight, making influencer vetting both faster and more reliable.

Understanding Engagement

Engagement isn’t just a percentage. AI helps us analyze comment sentiment, identifying spam and low value interactions. This kind of AI driven engagement analysis gives us a deeper view into the audience than just a regular math equation.

Brand Safety and Sponsorship History

Brand safety is one of the trickiest parts of influencer marketing, and it’s also where AI provides a clear advantage. Our models scan beyond surface-level metrics, analyzing a creator’s sponsorship history to detect patterns that could put campaigns at risk. For example, if a YouTuber has promoted three different VPN companies in the past quarter, it’s a red flag for brand consistency.

The system also helps flag potential risks: content that veers into controversial territory, recurring themes that may clash with a brand’s values. By finding these issues early, we give clients more confidence in their choices and prevent mistakes. This is how AI tools for brand safety in influencer campaigns help protect investments.

Practical Use Cases Today

AI-driven vetting isn’t theoretical - it’s already reshaping how campaigns are run. A brand launching a new product can scan thousands of creators in hours instead of weeks, receiving a shortlist of candidates that actually match the target audience. Agencies can run side-by-side comparisons of influencer lists against client goals, instantly highlighting the best fits.

Even smaller marketing teams benefit: with limited staff, they can lean on AI to cover scale, ensuring no good channel slips through the cracks. What once required a full department can now be done by a lean team with the right AI influencer marketing tools.

Looking Ahead: Smarter Influencer Vetting

The next wave of tools will move from descriptive to predictive. Real-time vetting during campaign planning will make it possible to see instantly whether a creator is a safe fit. Models will go further, forecasting the potential ROI of a sponsorship - for example, predicting how a creator’s next product integration might perform based on audience history. They will also be able to analyze thousands of videos, match them with the highest projected ROI, and highlight which types of integrations deliver the strongest results.

Over time, influencer marketing will shift from gut-driven guesswork to data-driven storytelling, where brands can make creative choices with confidence.

Whisper, Don’t Shout

At softstory, we believe the right voices matter more than the loudest ones. The goal of influencer marketing isn’t just reach - it’s resonance. AI helps us find creators whose influence feels authentic, aligned, and sustainable.

By combining human judgment with AI speed, we make influencer selection more accurate, efficient, and brand-safe. Influence travels further when it feels real. The most effective voices are the ones that whisper, not shout.