Germany has Introduced An AI Travel Influencer, It Is Doomed To Fail
I was perusing the internet seeking something to write about today when this article from the Daily Mail (yes I know, but I’ll explain in the future why reading wide news sources is helpful if painful) jumped out like a cat out of hell. “ ‘So weird’: German tourist board introduces AI ‘travel influencer’ — and the REAL-LIFE influencers do not like her one bit…” [6]. Naturally I had to dive in, it’s about the new AI influencer the German tourist board has introduced called ‘Emma’ to help promote parts of Germany to international tourists. “Emma will operate in conjunction with our established influencer marketing structures,” Petra Hedorfer, CEO of the GNTB, said in a statement. [4].
On paper it is understandable why this is a good idea, you wont get the PR nightmares that originate from people being naturally flawed or having a hidden/dark side that is not shown on camera that many influencers and streamers have been caught out by. There are alternate ways to make the tool useful, have a script and make the AI output the text in different languages, with one uniformed voice this can be extremely brand safe and ensure that the message is exact and on brand. With one massive advantage, its very cheap.
But, why? Why use these tools as a substitute for influencers? This is the sticking point that makes little sense and even less when you start to consider why we use influencers as marketeers.
We use influencers because they should be authentic, authentic to their audience and who they are as people. That is why people engage with their content. Removing the reason why people engage with content defeats the point of using it — or does it? The only reason logically, beyond avoiding PR disasters is that they are avoiding using actual influencers to cut costs. Which is odd, considering the impact of tourism not only on the German economy but also on how Germany is perceived in the wider world. In the same way a company taking a half page spread ad in a newspaper or magazine is telling the world they are cheap (as the saying goes), it does not seem like a serious strategy to attract visitors.
Its also insightful into how the marketing is being conducted at the board. We know that when AI is mentioned or is utilised in ads there are lower levels of trust from consumers [1]. This impact is even greater when the content is labelled with having used AI for content generation [3]. With it being associated because of social media with poor quality slop, that people are not interested in seeing clutter their feeds. That’s before we get into issues around the blatant abuse of copyright used to create image and text generation models, bias, safety and environmental issues [2].
If the goal is to get people to see parts of Germany, It probably is not a wise idea to be using AI generated personas using AI generated images of Germany to do so, how does that sell you on the reality of visiting? At its core it screams of a lack of authenticity, the core problem that influencer campaigns are meant to create. By using an AI influencer, it defeats the point of even having an influencer, it fundamentally illogical when you consider the theory, and the practice of how people interact and are influenced.
Some Key Facts (from Statista [5])
- 100.2bn Euros in revenue in 2023 (83.4b GBP)
- 183.3m tourists arriving in travel accommodation
- 487.2m overnight stays at German travel accommodation
Sources
[1] AI is Destroying Consumer Trust …But Communities Can Rise Above the Noise — Advertising Week
[3] Not disclosing AI-generated content negatively impacts trust — Digital Content Next
[4] Germany’s New AI Travel Influencer Is A Chatbot Still Working Out Some Kinks
[5] Tourism industry in Germany — statistics & facts | Statista
