The Social Shift: Empowering More Personalized Stories

In the past 20 years, we’ve seen social media take the world by storm with the rise and fall of countless trends, platforms, and conversations that have captivated literally billions of people. In 2025, we’re seeing more and more of those stories created not by people, but by Artificial Intelligence through the use of AI characters, agents, algorithms, and more. Once a tool to connect with friends and family, social has grown into a destination for entertainment and education, giving users the perception that authentic human connection isn’t just on the backburner, it’s falling off the stove.  

More than 70% of consumers expect AI to negatively impact social channels. As many social channels continue to incorporate AI into algorithms, content creation tools, and news feeds, the perception of diminished quality and distrust grows among everyday users. As a result, consumers are actively limiting their use of major platforms.  

Our Marketing Trends + Insights series has explored how AI is redefining modern marketing, as well as how story + connection should define marketing in 2025. In Part 3, we’ll delve into this key question: In the face of growing anti-AI sentiment, how can brands hope to find success on social media? 

Social Media + AI

The answer is simple: establish and nurture authentic connection with consumers among the clutter. To understand how to differentiate our voice, we need to know what we’re up against:  

The Integration of AI Characters

Meta announced the integration of AI profiles in 2024, with the idea that by simulating humanlike profiles complete with bios, profile images, and content creation abilities, these AI figures could significantly elevate user engagement by promising everything from entertainment to personalized companionship. 

Initial reception to this announcement was negative, but the truth of the matter is most social users can’t identify what content is AI generated. Additionally, these characters could provide users who previously felt they had no audience with a new swarm of AI users designed to interact and engage with their content. Even if they logically know that this engagement is not legit, it still feels good to receive. Moving forward, as long as their engagement numbers continue to grow and they continue to be entertained by the content on their feed, users are less likely to question the humanity of the creator behind it.  

Everyone is an AI Content Creator

From everyday users to advertisers with deep pockets, AI content creation tools are for everyone. For everyday users, AI tools provide the capability for artistic expression they never had before. From image and music generators, video editors, AI writing tools, and more, a new wave of artists are inspired and able to create like never before, without needing decades of experience in any craft. However, as users skip middle steps in honing their craft for self-expression and breeze past hours previously required for creation, the quantity of media shared on social far surpasses the quality. The flood of sub-par content only exacerbates the content clutter brands were already up against.  

AI Misinformation + Confusion

AI characters and content are only in the first stages of legitimately passable media, behavior, and content. As capabilities grow and these tools continue to learn and grow from interactions with humans, it’ll only get harder to identify what content is AI generated and what is not. This fuels a dangerous fire of misinformation and confusion, across topics ranging from politics to a fake elderly person’s 120th birthday.  

In 2023, the Gonzalez v. Google Supreme Court ruling set a new precedent that platforms are not responsible for what content is served to its users. In 2024, Meta’s own moderation changes got rid of fact-checking and loosened its rules around what people can share on its apps. As the world continues to navigate where responsibility lies in the face of misinformation, AI content will only continue to muddy already murky waters. 

Amongst the changing tides, social media becomes a cluttered, confusing place for everyday users. In response, users are becoming more intentional with the time they spend online, with AI largely to blame, leading to the decentralization of social media and a perceived decay in the quality of social media sites, pushing 50% of consumers to significantly limit their use of major platforms.  

So how do brands continue to use social media as an effective marketing tool? It starts with what they bring to the conversations themselves.  

AI Involvement: Behind the Scenes

Beyond content and character creation, AI’s impact on social media is boundless, especially when it comes to providing users with a customized experience.  From a technical perspective, AI provides social media algorithms with the ability to provide unique experiences to users and not be overwhelmed by the growing volume of content shared. 

AI, Algorithms + Machine Learning

As algorithms digest data signals to identify how content is served to various audiences, AI enables these algorithms to digest and understand more data than ever before, refining these recommendations to enhanced accuracy, predictive models, and ultimately a more intelligent user experience.  

These performance algorithms also play a key role in maximizing user experience for everyday users of the platform, providing personalized recommendations for the content users see, both organic and paid content.  

Social Media SEO

More and more young people (40%) now prefer TikTok as their primary search engine over Google. With this said, brands should start/continue to push content on this social platform to remain competitive. These are especially important when it comes to social SEO. As more people utilize social media as a search engine than ever before, adapting social presence and content to be SEO-friendly and digestible by an AI algorithm can give content an extra boost for organic reach and make your content more discoverable to others.  

Authenticity in the Wake of AI

Creativity and authenticity will reign supreme amongst the content clutter. A genuine brand voice becomes more important, and storytelling becomes the core of all successful branding. Building a strong connection with the right audience requires authentic human connection, something that AI systems will not be able to simulate so easily.  

Prioritizing Authenticity

A Stackla survey showed that 88% of consumers prioritize authenticity when choosing brands to support. Users are tired of inauthentic brand messaging, curated perfection, and the constant influx of promotional content demanding their attention. They crave real, transparent interactions that showcase the human and the story behind the company. Brands that are genuine in their communication and acknowledge their mistakes foster more loyalty.  

Meta has steadily rolled out generative AI advertising tools, including image, video, and text generators that are now used by more than 4 million advertisers, versus 1 million just six months ago.  

Becoming Unpredictable

As AI Algorithms analyze and serve your content to audiences with increasingly technical accuracy, the worst thing you can do for your brand is put yourself in a box. To challenge the AI algorithm’s understanding of your content is to constantly pursue and meet new audiences. This can be done in multiple ways, including following these 2025 content trends:  

• Fragmented Brand Storytelling: All great brand content relies on storytelling to connect with audiences in an authentic and significant way. As consumer’s attention is divided between platforms, mediums, and more content than ever, brands must get creative when it comes to sharing any type of narrative. Fragmented brand storytelling, or non-linear storytelling, embraces the complexity of modern media consumption. This model requires brand content to be agile, adaptable and engage consumers across multiple touchpoints. Simultaneously, it requires consumer participation as modern consumers expect to interact with brands rather than passively consume content. 
• Creative Disruption: This is one content experimentation trend that has some brands pushing the creative boundaries of their content beyond brand guidelines. While providing consumers with an unexpected, creative experience, it also confuses the algorithm and prevents it from putting your profile and content into a box of pre-established understanding of who or what your content and audience are, allowing you to reach new audiences.  

Shifting to Personalized Stories

As the rise of AI-generated content, AI characters, and AI as the driving force between how content is served, the rising voice among the noise is authentic, human connection. Personalized stories resonate with audiences of all kinds, whether it’s personalized to the brand or the user. There is no replacement for content that allows your unique voice and experience to shine through. The brands that navigate AI to create singular social content while building genuine stories will be the ones to capture lasting loyalty. By balancing AI-driven capabilities with honest storytelling, brands can create connections that truly resonate.  

AI is going to continue transforming a lot about our industry — there’s no doubt. Smart marketers would be wise to start learning the potential, and limitations, of AI tools, to maximize their efforts. But human connection is not something that machines can recreate, and not something that will be replaced so easily.