Ted Murphy, who founded the Influencer Marketing company IZEA, told an audience at Syracuse University that social platforms are building synthetic alternatives to human creators, and that creators and brands should adopt AI now or risk being replaced by it.
“They care about maximizing their own profits, not yours,” he told creators in the audience. “Realize that every dollar that a brand spends on an influencer or creator is a dollar that could have gone to paid media spend on their platform.”
As evidence, Murphy cited AI-generated influencers and content creation tools at the ad-platform level, which he said are available inside TikTok at no cost to advertisers, with “no influencer middleman.” In his account, the platform pitch to brands is no back-and-forth negotiating, near-instant creative and infinite variations.
Murphy delivered the keynote on October 22, 2026 at ‘CUSE Creator Con, the annual event of Syracuse’s Center for the Creator Economy, held at the Whitman School of Management. He founded IZEA in 2006 as PayPerPost and is now building an AI-first media and marketing company.
Pricing and a Channel Experiment
Murphy argued that creator pricing has outrun value. He said the average price of a sponsored post grew 98 times in IZEA’s first decade, and that IZEA’s last published average for a sponsored blog post was nearly $1,500. “As much as I love seeing influencers getting paid, influencer costs cannot continue to rise the way that they have,” he said.
He offered his own experiment as evidence. Murphy said he acquired a YouTube channel in January of last year that its creator had spent 13 years building to 1 million followers, with viewership, membership and watch time declining. He replaced the creator, whom he described as a 70-year-old man, with a faceless AI voice and AI-driven content strategy. Murphy said the channel lost subscribers in the first eight hours after the first AI video on February 3, then recovered within 24 hours. He said views rose 33% and subscriber growth rose 337% in the first 90 days, and that monthly revenue is now four times its level at purchase.
Murphy said the channel is now agentic, requiring 20 minutes of human time to produce a 10-minute episode. The model lets a creator sell a package of 20 owned and operated channels in place of a single sponsorship.
He also described an AI-run YouTube channel launched with a national pet-industry trade association. Murphy said it drew seven times more views per subscriber than two multibillion-dollar pet brands. He put the cost of the AI video at $1.50 against an assumed $400 per brand video, and described the channel as 85 and 121 times more cost-effective per view than the two brands.
Advice and a Prediction
Murphy predicted that more than half of new online content will be AI-generated by 2028. He told brand marketers to run one influencer campaign with AI and one without. He told creators to scale themselves with AI. “The ones who don’t will find out that somebody made an AI that mimics their style with a new face and a new voice,” he said.
He also predicted a backlash modeled on the one he faced in 2006, when critics called him “evil,” followed by Google’s decision to “derank” IZEA’s blogger network in 2007. “The creators in power today will attack upcoming creators who are using AI,” he said.
Earlier in the program, Syracuse researchers presented preliminary findings from their “Creator, Defined” study. According to the survey, almost 86% of the 989 respondents demanded AI disclosure and 56% would think less of a creator who hid AI use. Younger respondents were the most skeptical of both authenticity and AI use.
Murphy said disclosure is a given in his channel experiment. “People will watch AI even if they know it’s bad cuz it’s always disclosed and even if it’s not perfect,” he said.
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.
Ted Murphy, who founded the Influencer Marketing company IZEA, told an audience at Syracuse University that social platforms are building synthetic alternatives to human creators, and that creators and brands should adopt AI now or risk being replaced by it.
“They care about maximizing their own profits, not yours,” he told creators in the audience. “Realize that every dollar that a brand spends on an influencer or creator is a dollar that could have gone to paid media spend on their platform.”
As evidence, Murphy cited AI-generated influencers and content creation tools at the ad-platform level, which he said are available inside TikTok at no cost to advertisers, with “no influencer middleman.” In his account, the platform pitch to brands is no back-and-forth negotiating, near-instant creative and infinite variations.
Murphy delivered the keynote on October 22, 2026 at ‘CUSE Creator Con, the annual event of Syracuse’s Center for the Creator Economy, held at the Whitman School of Management. He founded IZEA in 2006 as PayPerPost and is now building an AI-first media and marketing company.
Pricing and a Channel Experiment
Murphy argued that creator pricing has outrun value. He said the average price of a sponsored post grew 98 times in IZEA’s first decade, and that IZEA’s last published average for a sponsored blog post was nearly $1,500. “As much as I love seeing influencers getting paid, influencer costs cannot continue to rise the way that they have,” he said.
He offered his own experiment as evidence. Murphy said he acquired a YouTube channel in January of last year that its creator had spent 13 years building to 1 million followers, with viewership, membership and watch time declining. He replaced the creator, whom he described as a 70-year-old man, with a faceless AI voice and AI-driven content strategy. Murphy said the channel lost subscribers in the first eight hours after the first AI video on February 3, then recovered within 24 hours. He said views rose 33% and subscriber growth rose 337% in the first 90 days, and that monthly revenue is now four times its level at purchase.
Murphy said the channel is now agentic, requiring 20 minutes of human time to produce a 10-minute episode. The model lets a creator sell a package of 20 owned and operated channels in place of a single sponsorship.
He also described an AI-run YouTube channel launched with a national pet-industry trade association. Murphy said it drew seven times more views per subscriber than two multibillion-dollar pet brands. He put the cost of the AI video at $1.50 against an assumed $400 per brand video, and described the channel as 85 and 121 times more cost-effective per view than the two brands.
Advice and a Prediction
Murphy predicted that more than half of new online content will be AI-generated by 2028. He told brand marketers to run one influencer campaign with AI and one without. He told creators to scale themselves with AI. “The ones who don’t will find out that somebody made an AI that mimics their style with a new face and a new voice,” he said.
He also predicted a backlash modeled on the one he faced in 2006, when critics called him “evil,” followed by Google’s decision to “derank” IZEA’s blogger network in 2007. “The creators in power today will attack upcoming creators who are using AI,” he said.
Earlier in the program, Syracuse researchers presented preliminary findings from their “Creator, Defined” study. According to the survey, almost 86% of the 989 respondents demanded AI disclosure and 56% would think less of a creator who hid AI use. Younger respondents were the most skeptical of both authenticity and AI use.
Murphy said disclosure is a given in his channel experiment. “People will watch AI even if they know it’s bad cuz it’s always disclosed and even if it’s not perfect,” he said.
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