Tech companies like Microsoft and Google are going after new users for their AI services the way any marketer tries to make their products look cool: through social media influencers.
Other artificial intelligence players, including Anthropic and Meta, are also hiring social media creators to post sponsored content on apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and even LinkedIn. The payout for these promotions can reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to industry experts.
AI companies have increased advertising considerably over the past year. Generative AI platforms spent more than $1 billion on digital ads in the U.S. in 2025, according to Sensor Tower, up 126% from the year prior. Influencer marketing is now emerging as one of the next battlegrounds for users in the AI boom.
The ad race is making its way to the biggest sporting event of the year in the U.S. Anthropic is spending millions of dollars to air a 60-second pregame and 30-second in-game spot during the Super Bowl on Sunday, aimed at OpenAI’s recent decision to start showing ads within ChatGPT.
In the emerging creator space, influencers are getting paid by tech companies to promote their respective AI tools to social media users. That could be through writing a LinkedIn post on how to use Anthropic’s Claude Code or by posting an Instagram video about fun things to do with Microsoft Copilot or Perplexity’s Comet assistant.