AI-driven virtual influencers and the making of unequal digital livelihoods in Indonesia

Discussions about artificial intelligence in development often overlook how it reshapes everyday livelihoods in the Global South. This study examines how AI-driven virtual influencers (VIs) are transforming creative labour and digital visibility in Indonesia’s platform economy. Rather than autonomous technologies, VIs are produced through human–algorithm coordination shaped by platform logics and commercial imperatives. Drawing on 13 in-depth interviews with human influencers and one VI developer, this study shows how the expansion of VIs intensifies competition and creates increasing pressure for creators working with limited economic resources, unstable income, and self-funded production conditions. Thus, AI-driven systems reconfigure how income, visibility, and opportunities are distributed, contributing to unequal digital livelihoods. Simultaneously, VIs are designed to reflect local moral and aesthetic norms, revealing how global AI systems produce context-specific forms of inclusion and exclusion. These findings call for protection of creative workers, fair platform governance, and locally grounded AI policies.