AI Virtual Influencers, Parasocial Relationships, and Trust in Social Media Communication: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Artificial intelligence has contributed to the rapid development of virtual influencers, digitally constructed personas that appear on social media platforms and communicate with audiences through images, captions, videos, comments, and brand collaborations. Unlike traditional social media influencers, AI virtual influencers do not have biological bodies, personal histories, or everyday experiences in the human sense. Nevertheless, they can attract followers, endorse products, participate in cultural conversations, and stimulate emotional attachment. This conceptual article examines how AI virtual influencers reshape social media communication by challenging established assumptions about authenticity, credibility, parasocial relationships, and trust. Drawing on human–machine communication, influencer marketing, parasocial interaction theory, and algorithmic visibility, the article proposes a three-dimensional framework for understanding AI virtual influencer communication: synthetic authenticity, parasocial attachment, and platform-mediated trust. Synthetic authenticity refers to the managed construction of perceived realness around nonhuman digital personas. Parasocial attachment refers to followers’ one-sided emotional connection with virtual influencers. Platform-mediated trust refers to the ways social media visibility, influencer credibility, disclosure, and brand association shape audience evaluations. The article argues that AI virtual influencers should not be treated only as marketing tools, but as emerging communicative actors that reveal broader tensions in AI-mediated society. The article concludes by proposing future research directions related to disclosure, emotional labor, audience vulnerability, ethical branding, and the boundary between human and machine communication.