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For years, the creator economy has become increasingly accepted as the future of media. These days, makeup tutorials on TikTok could have the same impact for a brand as a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, and a progressive Twitch streamer can reach a comparable, if not bigger audience, as MSNBC. But like digital media before it, the creator economy now faces a multifaceted conundrum that could determine its long term fate: shifting priorities from Meta and X, the potential TikTok ban (which, thanks to an executive order from the Trump administration, has at least a stay of execution), industry consolidation, and AI-enabled content overload. Taken together, these issues could spell the end of the influencer and creator economy as it exists in its current form, according to nearly a dozen industry experts interviewed by Fast Company. The appeal of influencers has historically laid with their supposed authenticity. They’re pushing products they believe in or sharing news commentary from an unfiltered perspective, which resonated with consumers. Increasingly, there is a sentiment that this authenticity is fading. And that could spell big long-term changes. AI: Friend of Foe? AI tools have made it easier for influencers to break into the marketplace like using ChatGPT to write articles, or Adobes text to image maker to make pictures, and Canvas AI video generator to make clips. By doing so, these products have made it easier to get content out in the world without developing the skills needed to make higher quality programming. That low barrier to entryand the general proliferation of AI-fueled content across the webalso means it can be difficult for creators to stand out. At the same time, the ubiquity of AI has for many consumers inserted a skepticism around authenticity. Amazon Web Services researchers believe 57% of online content is already made by AI programs or translated via AI programs. Yet, per a recent Deloitte study, seven out of 10 consumers reportedly think generative AI is ruining the user experience. Thats already having an impact on how consumers interact with creators and influencers. Forty-five percent of 13 to 22 year olds say that influencers dont have as much sway as they used to, according to a YPulse study. Meanwhile, a survey by EnTribe found 51% of consumers scrolled right past an influencer post that appeared in their feed. In terms of actually using AI as the way to generate ideas to create content, I think were just going to get a lot of quantity and not quality, says Ivy Yang, founder of Wavelet Strategy, a New York-based communications consultancy. Sure enough, brands have started to catch on to consumer sentiment. A plethora of brands have asked their ad agencies to not use AI in their strategies. Dove notably said it would not use AI-generated content at all. Are Brand Partnerships Really Helping? A staggering 61% of 13 to 39-year-olds believe the more ads influencers do, the less they trust them, according to a YPulse survey. As soon as the audience starts to feel like this person isnt authentic or interesting, they just jump to another person who is seen as more authentic and interesting, says James Nord, founder and CEO of the influencer marketing company Fohr. That authenticity problem is already impacting brands who rely on influencers to push their products. An EnTribe study found that 42% of people who purchased something recommended by influencers regretted that decision which is fueling a credibility crisis. “Inauthenticity can trigger swift backlash, and evolving regulations add complexity. As digital trends shift rapidly, sustainable success demands agility and foresight,” says Lizi Sprague, a cofounder of Songue PR. Brands are progressively spending less on social media marketing all together. A survey of 292 CMOs showed a 23% decline in 2023 and another 11% decline in 2024. Brands are finding more success with more niche nano-influencers but that means spreading a wider net and dishing out smaller payouts. Misinformation Crisis Influencers played an outsize role in the 2024 presidential election. Both candidates relied heavily on podcast appearances, but ultimately President Donald Trumps strategy was to tap into the so-called “manosphere,” which ultimately led to his success by helping him court the Gen Z male vote by double-digit margins. Now, concerns about the surge in misinformation on platforms like X and TikTok are starting to drive news consumers away. Indeed, a 2023 Gartner survey suggests that influencers being on equal footing with established press may be a short-lived phenomenon. The study found that more than half of consumers plan to pull away from social media as soon as this year, citing the spread of misinformation as one of the top reasonsa big concern with a president now in office known for lying on a regular basis. And per a 2024 study from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 62% of creaors admittedly do not verify information before spreading it online. Talking to students about their interactions with social media platforms [. . . ] they kind of feel bad about how much time to spend with these platforms, says Jacob Nelson, a journalism professor at the University of Utah. Nelson, who has written about shifts in social media audiences for Harvards Nieman Lab, says this is the first time his students arent optimistic about the future of social media and are in fact pulling away. No one among the audience seems all that thrilled with the amount of time that they are investing, he tells Fast Company. Will the Creator Economy Survive? As a cautionary tale, the creator economy ought to look at the digital media sector. In the early 2010s, publishers like Vice and Vox seemed almost invincible. But they were ultimately dependent on the whim of tech giants for their own successparticularly Facebook (which was behind the infamous “pivot to video” trend) and Google. Eventually these Silicon Valley power players shifted their strategyand proved disastrous for publishers who relied on them. Websites like BuzzFeed, Gawker, and Mic suddenly faced a massive shift in their own manifest destiny (i.e., a cascade of layoffs and consolidations) often under the control of private equity. Ultimately, these changes left many outlets as husks of their former selves. In 2012 the digital media industry seemed unstoppable; in 2018 alone, it laid off over 15,000 workers, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The platforms frankly are always going to be optimizing for their own business interests, says Sterling Proffer, former head of growth for Vice Media. Fast forward to today: X, Linkedin, and Meta platforms have all shifted key parts of their business model several times in the last couple years and TikTok is still on the chopping block. Thats why those who dont have the skills to scale their creator offerings outside of one specific platform may not surviveat least if they want to make creating content a full-time job.I think that the folks who have been building on that are coming to recognize this element that theyre building on rented land, and there is a need for content creators who can diversify their offerings across platforms and even in real life, Brett Dashevsky, founder of Creator Economy NYC and the head of Content Creators at Kickstarter, tells Fast Company.Creators who have a specific skill or insightsay, a chef sharing unique culinary knowledgewill stand the test of time. They can upscale their projects to include in-person events like cooking classes, exclusive dinners, cookbooks, and meal kits. But for those who rose to fame thanks just to brand deals and dance videos, the future may not look so sunny after all.
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E-Commerce
NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is most well known for the National Weather Service, providing forecasting that underpins local meteorological reports and major sites like AccuWeather. But the data that NOAA collects is also crucial for private-sector industries, from airlines to insurance. The Trump administration is threatening this agency, and began slashing jobs there on Thursday. That means those other industries are also at risk. When it comes to insurance, climate change already causes billions of dollars in losses globally. Here in the U.S. people who live in areas especially prone to climate risks are seeing their rates skyrocket, or theyre seeing insurance carriers withdraw coverage in high-risk states. Without NOAA data, these trends could worsen, and leave even more Americans with higher insurance premiumsor without coverage at all. Financial services, including home insurance providers, consistently rely on [NOAA] to comprehend the influence of climate and weather on the economy and to facilitate transactions, says Manogna Vangari, an insurance analyst at GlobalData. Specifically, insurance providers get data from NOAAs National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), which recently revealed that in 2024, the U.S. experienced 27 individual weather and climate disasters causing at least $1 billion in damages each. In total, 2024 saw more than $192 billion in disaster costs, and more than 560 direct or indirect fatalities. NCEI data helps insurers assess risks, and determine premiums. Insurers use this data to develop their catastrophe models, which estimate the economic losses from extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods; that then underpins premiums, underwriting, claims, and more. Insurers also look at data sets on storm report categories by state, as well as databases on specific disaster types such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Losing that data, Vangari says, would complicate the way home insurance companies price climate-related risks. It also would hinder their ability to accurately model out the risk of extreme weather events, like wildfires and hurricanes, “and to price climate risk with greater precision. Without knowing those climate risks, insurance companies themselves risk more financial losses. To make up for that uncertainty, they’ll need to raise premiums even more, or they might just choose to pull out of particularly risky areas. The cost of losing that accurate, reliable data would then fall on consumers. Insurance companies also use NOAA retrospective analysis of weather effects to verify claimslike how bad a hailstorm really was, says Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator from 2021 until January of this year. The insurance industry, as well as the reinsurance industry (which provides insurance for other insurance companies) has had an informal partnership with NOAA for 20 years. Spinrad formalized that partnership with a 2024 memorandum of understanding with the Reinsurance Association of America, an agreement meant to improve risk communication. NOAA has also worked with the insurance industry through its Industry Proving Ground, an initiative to test tailored services for the private sector, and to make sure the agency provides the best data for businesses to be most effective. Because NOAA is a government service funded by taxpayers, its data is free. That means everyone has access to crucial weather forecasts. Project 2025, the conservative playbook that the Trump administration is following, advocates privatizing this service. But experts have said that even private weather companies wouldnt want that, because then theyd have to bear the cost of collecting the data that the government currently provides. If, instead, this data were accessible only to those who could afford it, that would particularly impact homeowners in vulnerable communities, Vangari says. Insurers might be hesitant to pay a fee and rely on some other alternative source without access to reliable data, she adds. This would lead to a disproportionate increase in insurance premiums. Additionally, insurers may refuse to provide coverage in high-risk areas. That doesn’t just impact people who may lose their homes and need to rebuild. Broadly, the stakes of losing this data are serious: In places that are susceptible to climate impacts like tornadoes or floods or tsunamis along the coast, timely access to weather data can be a matter of life and death. Not having the data doesn’t stop climate impacts from happening, multiple experts have notedit just makes us less prepared. Some private companies are starting to invest in their own weather satellites. But completely replicating NOAAs instrumental fleet and weather coveragewhich includes operating 18 satellites, launching weather balloons from nearly 100 locations twice every day, and deploying more than 1,300 buoyswould require an enormous amount of money. What NOAA is able to provide for free, Vangari says, is a public good. . . . Its services offer safety and security universally, not merely to those who can afford them.
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E-Commerce
TikTok just updated its desktop viewing experience to offer a smoother UX, expanded features, and more ways to watch. I wish it would go back to how it was before. Its no secret that TikTok has a mobile-first design. Its beloved hyper-specific algorithm and For You page, as well as its wholehearted embrace of short-form video, has inspired copycats the likes of which include everyone from Instagram to LinkedIn and Substack. TikTok has even changed the fabric of culture itself, shortening attention spans and shaping the music industry as we know it. While TikTok shines on mobile, its desktop experience has historically been significantly less intuitive. The new desktop browser is, by all counts, a marked improvement. But, for those of us who turn to the clunky desktop TikTok to cut down on screen time, its not necessarily a good thing. [Photo: TikTok] Ugh, TikToks new desktop browser is better The biggest change to TikToks desktop browser is the noticeably smoother UX. Previously, scrolling through videos on the homepage could feel delayed and glitchy, which quickly becomes frustrating given that its the platforms main function. Now, each clip transitions smoothly into the nextan element of TikToks new optimized modular layout that offers a more immersive viewing experience and seamless feed exploration, according to a press release. The look of the platform has also been cleaned up and simplified, including via a minimized navigation bar, to reduce distractions during doomscrolling. Beyond the improved UX, updated desktop TikTok also comes with a few new features. Its poached the Explore tab straight from the app, giving users another, less tailored feed to explore. Theres now also full-screen live streaming modes for gamers, a web-exclusive floating player on Google Chrome so users can watch brainrot Subway Surfers TikToks while they shop online, and a collections tool that can organize saved videos into subcategories. And, yeah, on the surface, all of these changes are reasonable responses to TikToks lackluster web browser experience. They make it more frictionless, intuitive, and enjoyable. But did the developers ever consider that maybe some of us liked it when it was bad? Can we just not? When TikTok entered the mainstream around the early pandemic, I downloaded it on my phone for a total of about two days. The reason it didnt make the cut in my app library was not because it was bad, but because it was actually too funso much so that reading my AP Lit homework started to feel like an insurmountable task when those little videos were, like, right there. For me, the ideal screen time solution has been to delete social media apps from my phone and only check them when Im on my computer, where their desktop counterparts tend to be more outdated and, sometimes, downright annoying. My one exception to this rule is YouTube Shorts, but only because its algorithm is leagues behind TikToks and therefore tends to drive me away by recommending one too many English hobby horsing videos. Am I still addicted to these apps? Most definitely. But do I feel like I have to check them every 30 seconds? Thankfully, no. TikToks desktop experience used to similarly serve as a refuge from the mobile app itself. It was a safe place to get a quick taste of whats happening online without getting sucked into a three-hour rabbit hole about giving butter to babies. Its irritating quirks were precisely the pointand, I would argue, plenty of other desktop users likely turned to this version for the same reason. Now, though, as the desktop experience creeps ever-closer to the actual mobile app, were all going to have to figure out where to relegate TikTok so that we can hack our brains out of craving it.
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E-Commerce
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