Nicole
2025: A year that reorganized the creator economy
Few years have shaped influencer marketing as much as 2025. Neither regulatory, political and economic uncertainties, nor TikTok debates or algorithmic realignments were able to slow down growth. According to the Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report, the global market rose to 32.55 billion US dollars and 63% of brands planned creator campaigns as an integral part of their annual planning.
At the same time, priorities shifted significantly: away from superficial metrics such as follower numbers and towards performance depth, ROI measurability and data-based workflows. An Adesso analysis shows that 2026 will be characterized more than ever by AI-supported processes, social commerce and professional brand management.
Influencer marketing has therefore finally outgrown its experimental phase and become a strategic core competence.
Creators as AI producers: The new normal
2025 was the year in which AI was no longer discussed as a trend, but became an integral part of creators' daily work. This is also shown by our own report on the "Use of AI in influencer marketing", for which we analyzed 936 votes from five regions. The results speak for themselves: over 80% of marketers already use generative AI several times a week, primarily for idea generation, editing and automated structuring. At the same time, 73% are already using AI to create images, while 91% of marketers cite time savings as the biggest benefit.
However, the development is not all positive. Around 31% fear generic results, and half of creators are concerned about the loss of creative independence. Particularly noteworthy: 50% of creators believe that AI will improve their content quality, but just as many are afraid of deepfakes - a risk that is having an increasing impact on brand safety and creator vetting.
For brands, this means that the real question is no longer whether creators use AI, but how professionally and consistently. Production quality, stability and repeatability determine whether a creator is a reliable partner in the long term.
This is precisely where IROIN® Discovery comes in. The AI-supported search combines classic data intelligence with machine learning and analyzes creators not according to follower numbers, but according to their tonality, topic clusters, audience structure and content aesthetics. Brands can use text prompts to formulate wishes for content forms, target groups or styles and Discovery delivers precise creator suggestions, including lookalike analyses, in which successful creators serve as a reference.
Discovery thus becomes the first strategic decision-making authority in influencer marketing in 2026: an intelligent system that not only finds creators, but also understands them and helps brands to set up campaigns in a plannable, scalable and secure manner.
👉 You can view the full AI report HERE:
Instagram 2025: Video first and even stronger in 2026
Few platform signals were clearer in 2025 than this one: Instagram is now video-first.
Reels were tested for up to three minutes, the editing tools were expanded and the discovery areas were more strongly optimized for video.
As a result, Instagram is developing into a full-funnel platform in which attention, product experience and community building are intertwined via video.
The demands on creators are increasing: Their storytelling, their hooks, their edits - all of these will determine campaign success in 2026. Brands need to understand which creators can not only produce, but also direct.
TikTok 2025: New rules, new dynamics and what will emerge from them in 2026
TikTok has reshuffled the deck in 2025. With new AI creation tools and a revenue share model that pays creators up to 90%, a competitive advantage has been created that hardly any other platform can match.
The result: creators produce faster, more precisely and more narratively. Short form is becoming more professional, not more arbitrary. For brands, this means that they need creators who have mastered this new production logic and platforms like IROIN® that make this quality visible.
YouTube Shorts 2025: Monetization creates stability
While TikTok delivers agility and Instagram sorts reach, YouTube ensures long-term stability. Shorts are now produced professionally because creators receive 45% of the shorts ad pool.
A new hybrid form of content is emerging: entertainment, search and social all in one. Shorts are thus becoming the gateway to the YouTube ecosystem.
Through IROIN®, brands can identify precisely those creators who use shorts strategically, with series, recurring formats and clear story arcs.
What these trends really mean for brands in 2026
If you look at 2025 in an overall context, you can see a clear change: influencer marketing will become more analytical, more long-term and more sophisticated. 2026 belongs to brands that see influencer marketing not as a trend, but as a system:
- Creators will be selected systematically instead of randomly.
- Relationships are cultivated instead of activated selectively.
- Performance is measured instead of guessed.
- AI is understood instead of ignored.
- Creator ecosystems are built up as strategic assets.
And this is exactly what IROIN® was developed for. Discovery shows which creators really fit.
IRM structures relationships before chaos arises. Campaigning manages campaigns with agility, even when trends change. Reports make impact visible and risks recognizable early on. Influencer marketing does not become louder, but more precise.
2026 will decide who masters influencer marketing and who just goes along for the ride
2025 has shown how quickly the creator economy is evolving. 2026 will show who is ready to make strategic use of this development.
It will be the year in which intuition is no longer enough, AI becomes a matter of course and data-based creator control becomes the industry standard. Brands that invest in structure, quality and the right tools now will not only secure reach, but real impact.
The IROIN® Influencer Marketing Suite combines data, creativity, relationships and control into a system that enables growth, not by chance, but repeatably.
2026 will be the year of clarity.
The year of decisions.
And the year of brands that know where they are going.