More than 75% of marketers say their Influencer Marketing budgets increased over the past year, while the follower-count metric long used to justify those budgets is losing relevance to both marketers and consumers, according to a new report from Sprout Social.
The report, “The Next Wave of Influence: AI Influencers, Employee Advocates and the Post-follower Era,” draws on two surveys conducted by the research firm Panoplai on Sprout Social’s behalf: 2,250 consumers across the U.S., the UK and Australia surveyed from May 14-20, 2026, and 296 social media professionals across the U.S. and the UK surveyed from March 20 to April 6, 2026.
Budget Growth Meets a Measurement Gap
Of the marketers surveyed, 54% reported a budget increase of 1-10% and 22% reported an increase of 11% or more, against 19% who said budgets stayed flat and a combined 5% who saw decreases. The growth arrives alongside rising internal pressure to prove return on investment: 33% of respondents said concrete evidence of ROI is the factor most likely to trigger a significant budget increase.
That pressure is compounded by a stated goal mismatch. Half of marketers cited brand awareness as a top-three reason for running influencer campaigns, and 46% cited brand trust, while only 24% cited direct sales or conversion. Marketers’ top-ranked challenges were finding creators who align with brand values (42%), measuring ROI (41%), and finding creators who align with target audience (38%), followed by disclosure and compliance guidelines (32%) and benchmarking performance against competitors (30%).
Consumers Already Buy Based on Influencer Recommendations
The awareness-first framing sits against consumer behavior that skews further down the funnel. Two-thirds of consumers reported making a purchase based directly on an influencer’s recommendation in the past year, with 29% doing so 10 times or more. Among Gen Z, 81% made at least one such purchase.
Follower Count Drops Out of the Decision
The report’s central data point is the declining weight of follower count itself. Only 17% of consumers cited follower count as a factor in deciding whether to follow a creator, trailing the subjects a creator discusses (47%), the brands or companies they partner with (29%), and the quality of their most recent posts (29%).
That indifference extends to purchase intent. Asked about likelihood to buy based on a recommendation, 33% of consumers said audience size makes no difference, 21% said they lean toward niche influencers, and 15% said they lean toward large influencers.
Platform mechanics back up the shift. Sprout Social’s analysis of Instagram found more than 50% of creators have audiences where 70% or more of viewers are non-followers on Reels (60%) and feed posts (50%), compared with just 10% on Stories, which the report notes are designed for an existing follower base rather than algorithmic discovery.
Two New Categories: Employee Influencers and AI Influencers
The report identifies employee-generated content as an emerging category running alongside traditional Influencer Marketing. More than half of consumers said they see employees promoting or representing their employer at least weekly, and 40% said they discover new products through employee content monthly or more. Across generations, 40% found employee influencers more authentic than a brand’s main account, versus 19% who found them less authentic. Asked which employees they most want to hear from, 46% of consumers chose frontline workers over the marketing team (23%) or C-suite leadership (10%). A majority, 61%, said employee influencers should be paid extra for promotional work.
AI influencers drew more skepticism. Asked about brands partnering with AI-generated influencers, 44% of consumers said they were not comfortable with it, 30% said it depends on the situation, and 25% said they were comfortable. On detection, 60% of consumers said they know they do not follow any AI-generated influencers, 27% said they were not sure, and 13% said they know they do.
The report also found that more than 80% of consumers want an influencer to have personally used a product before promoting it, with 44% saying the influencer should be a long-time user and 37% saying at least one use is sufficient.
Image source: Sprout Social The full report is available here
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
More than 75% of marketers say their Influencer Marketing budgets increased over the past year, while the follower-count metric long used to justify those budgets is losing relevance to both marketers and consumers, according to a new report from Sprout Social.
The report, “The Next Wave of Influence: AI Influencers, Employee Advocates and the Post-follower Era,” draws on two surveys conducted by the research firm Panoplai on Sprout Social’s behalf: 2,250 consumers across the U.S., the UK and Australia surveyed from May 14-20, 2026, and 296 social media professionals across the U.S. and the UK surveyed from March 20 to April 6, 2026.
Budget Growth Meets a Measurement Gap
Of the marketers surveyed, 54% reported a budget increase of 1-10% and 22% reported an increase of 11% or more, against 19% who said budgets stayed flat and a combined 5% who saw decreases. The growth arrives alongside rising internal pressure to prove return on investment: 33% of respondents said concrete evidence of ROI is the factor most likely to trigger a significant budget increase.
That pressure is compounded by a stated goal mismatch. Half of marketers cited brand awareness as a top-three reason for running influencer campaigns, and 46% cited brand trust, while only 24% cited direct sales or conversion. Marketers’ top-ranked challenges were finding creators who align with brand values (42%), measuring ROI (41%), and finding creators who align with target audience (38%), followed by disclosure and compliance guidelines (32%) and benchmarking performance against competitors (30%).
Consumers Already Buy Based on Influencer Recommendations
The awareness-first framing sits against consumer behavior that skews further down the funnel. Two-thirds of consumers reported making a purchase based directly on an influencer’s recommendation in the past year, with 29% doing so 10 times or more. Among Gen Z, 81% made at least one such purchase.
Follower Count Drops Out of the Decision
The report’s central data point is the declining weight of follower count itself. Only 17% of consumers cited follower count as a factor in deciding whether to follow a creator, trailing the subjects a creator discusses (47%), the brands or companies they partner with (29%), and the quality of their most recent posts (29%).
That indifference extends to purchase intent. Asked about likelihood to buy based on a recommendation, 33% of consumers said audience size makes no difference, 21% said they lean toward niche influencers, and 15% said they lean toward large influencers.
Platform mechanics back up the shift. Sprout Social’s analysis of Instagram found more than 50% of creators have audiences where 70% or more of viewers are non-followers on Reels (60%) and feed posts (50%), compared with just 10% on Stories, which the report notes are designed for an existing follower base rather than algorithmic discovery.
Two New Categories: Employee Influencers and AI Influencers
The report identifies employee-generated content as an emerging category running alongside traditional Influencer Marketing. More than half of consumers said they see employees promoting or representing their employer at least weekly, and 40% said they discover new products through employee content monthly or more. Across generations, 40% found employee influencers more authentic than a brand’s main account, versus 19% who found them less authentic. Asked which employees they most want to hear from, 46% of consumers chose frontline workers over the marketing team (23%) or C-suite leadership (10%). A majority, 61%, said employee influencers should be paid extra for promotional work.
AI influencers drew more skepticism. Asked about brands partnering with AI-generated influencers, 44% of consumers said they were not comfortable with it, 30% said it depends on the situation, and 25% said they were comfortable. On detection, 60% of consumers said they know they do not follow any AI-generated influencers, 27% said they were not sure, and 13% said they know they do.
The report also found that more than 80% of consumers want an influencer to have personally used a product before promoting it, with 44% saying the influencer should be a long-time user and 37% saying at least one use is sufficient.
Image source: Sprout Social
The full report is available here
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