As the race to develop AI shopping tools continues to heat up, creators are getting caught in the cross hairs.
AI chatbots like ChatGPT rely heavily on creator content to make shopping recommendations. But creators generally don’t get credit—or a cut of revenue—when those recommendations lead to a sale.
One creator commerce company is aiming to change that.
Last week, LTK launched a new AI chatbot for shoppers called LTK AI. The chatbot is integrated into LTK’s app, which allows people to browse and buy items featured in shopping content from creators. LTK says it drives about $6 billion in annual sales and creators earn a commission from products they promote.
“What people expect today is a chat interface,” Amber Venz Box, co-founder and president of LTK, told Jasmine about the decision to launch the new chatbot on the latest episode of the Scalable podcast.
LTK AI surfaces product recommendations based only on content from verified creators on its platform. It also takes into account context like weather and location to answer questions like “What should I wear to a bachelorette party in Nashville?”
Creators get credited and earn a commission from those sales. The catch is that they have to be registered on LTK and post content there.
Data on how many people use AI for shopping is mixed. The IAB, for example, estimates that 38% of Americans used AI to shop as of October, with almost half of those AI shoppers saying they do so “most or every time.” But that doesn’t mean that AI chatbots are the first—or the only—place where people are shopping online.
And many people don’t fully trust AI recommendations, meaning that they’ll often consult other sources, including creators, friends and real customer reviews. The same IAB report found that 62% of shoppers trusted social media more than AI, for example.
That’s one reason why we believe AI won’t replace social and creator commerce. (Tune into our podcast below for more.)
Plus, the type of shopping that people do on AI chatbots is generally different from the more serendipitous type of shopping that happens on social media.
While both help people discover new brands and products, people who go to AI chatbots to shop likely already have a specific purchase or use case in mind, like a recipe or a certain outfit. Or they may be doing other shopping-related things, like comparing prices.
On the other hand, most people aren’t going to social media specifically for shopping. Instead, they stumble across an ad or creator post as they’re scrolling through their feeds that inspires them to buy.
That’s the kind of discovery LTK AI is aiming for. As Box put it: the idea is to “get you into the discovery flow where you [find something] you didn’t know you actually wanted.”
The lack of shopping intent has been a challenge for social platforms as they’ve tried to build out their commerce efforts. Just look at Meta backtracking on its commerce features. Even TikTok, which seems to have finally turned a corner with TikTok Shop, has struggled to build shopping into a habit.
One key difference between LTK and major social platforms is that LTK is built on commerce and creators, meaning that people are already going there to shop. That could give LTK AI an edge over other chatbots, including the new AI shopping tool that Meta started testing in the US this week.
But LTK, which launched in 2011 as RewardStyle, also has to compete with a flurry of newer creator-driven shopping platforms. That includes ShopMy, which was valued by investors at $1.5 billion in October. As for what Box thinks of these new rivals?
“Other point solutions that have popped up have given us ideas, they’ve sharpened us. I don't know that I would have had serious urgency to do major innovations like we've just done if there wasn't such momentum in the market,” she said.
Jasmine also spoke to Box about LTK’s new brand platform, the company’s recent partnership with Apple and the last purchase she made from LTK. (It’s not what you think!) Tune into the full conversation, out now anywhere you get your podcasts.
In other news…
Creators Who?
Kaya here. This week, I spent time at MWC Barcelona, formerly known as Mobile World Congress. It’s one of the largest tech conferences in the world, attracting more than 100,000 attendees.
As I walked through giant pavilions where tech companies showed off dancing robots, wearable devices and their latest AI breakthroughs, one thing was notably missing: creators.
It feels like virtually every major conference has added a creator economy track these days, including CES in Las Vegas, which has also traditionally focused on tech advancements and new gadgets. That wasn’t the case at MWC, where I couldn’t find a single panel or physical booth related to the creator economy.
Some tech-focused creators attended the conference though, according to the event’s app. That includes San Francisco-based Delia Lazarescu, an ex-Google engineer with more than 380,000 Instagram followers who posts mostly about AI using the handle @tech.unicorn. Other tech conferences, such as WebSummit Qatar last month, have attracted a wider variety of creators with different niches.
One crop of notable creator attendees at MWC: Representatives from MrBeast’s holding company Beast Industries, including CEO Jeff Housenbold. Given the YouTuber’s recent acquisition of teen-focused fintech firm Step and his plans to launch a mobile phone company, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised!
The Round Up
Amazon told customers it would shut down Wondery’s podcasting app and subscription offering. In August, the company laid off more than 100 Wondery employees and moved some of the podcasting unit’s programming under its Audible brand. Last month, we spoke to Wondery founder Hernan Lopez about the sale to Amazon.
Fixated acquired creator management firm Elevate. It’s the talent management company’s second deal this year after buying gaming-focused agency Ellify in January. Fixated announced $50 million in new funding in December, which was partly earmarked for M&A.
Bath & Body Works plans to recruit “thousands of influencers” to post about the brand as part of a broader strategy to revive sales. “We know [what works] from having seen this playbook run with other competitors,” CEO Daniel Heaftold Glossy.
Regulatory Woes
Elon Musk testified on Wednesday that investors “read too much” into his posts on social media. He was in court defending himself against Twitter shareholders who allege he made false and misleading statements that pushed down the company’s stock price before he bought the social media platform in 2022.
TikTok kicked off its defense in Irish court over whether the company is allowed to transfer the personal data of Europeans to China. This is a major test case for Europe’s privacy laws and how it protects European data from China’s invasive surveillance laws, according to Politico. The Irish Data Protection Commission is Europe’s most powerful privacy regulator.
Startup Spotlight: Devotion
The pitch behind Devotion, a new influencer marketing agency, is a reminder of just how much social media has shifted from followers to algorithms.
“Audiences have an enormous appetite for niche, highly-relatable creator content,” Devotion co-founder Jon Kroopf, told Scalable. “A post from a nurse in Ohio can have the same algorithmic upside as a macro influencer.”
That means brands have also had to change how they approach their work with creators. Kroopf, a former TikTok executive, and his co-founder Cami Téllez, who previously started buzzy underwear brand Parade, saw an opportunity to build a new type of “AI-native agency” to address what they see as a major reshaping of the creator economy.
The New York-based company has raised $4 million in funding led by Basecase and Will Ventures.
But Devotion is joining a crowded field of influencer marketing firms, which are competing for brand dollars. Many of them are integrating AI, sometimes building their tools from the ground up. Big agency holding companies are also snapping up smaller agencies, making it harder for independent influencer agencies to compete on scale.
Devotion thinks its combination of custom AI tools, such as agents and automations that handle tasks like evaluating creators and managing payments, and experienced team will give it an edge. The company said it’s tapped engineers with AI and machine learning backgrounds from companies like Palantir. It also hired Lauren Lambert, who spent seven years as an executive at influencer marketing firm Village Marketing, which is owned by WPP.
“Most brands don’t have the tools or teams to operate creator programs at this scale where they are engaging thousands of creators a month, and traditional agencies aren’t structured to support that level of volume,” Kroopf said when asked about his company’s biggest differentiator. “We bridge that gap.”
Talent Tracker
Kevin Sabbe joined Dude Perfect as the first chief content officer. Most recently, Sabbe was senior vice president of film and TV at Down Home, the Tim McGraw-founded media and marketing company. His hiring follows other executive additions to Dude Perfect’s team. Andrew Yaffe became CEO in September 2024 after more than 8 years as an NBA executive.
Marshall Lewy, the former chief content officer of Wondery, is now head of Amazon’s Audible content for North America. His new role includes overseeing podcasts, audiobooks and investigative series.
Billy Parks announced he left Slow Ventures where he invested directly in creators and their businesses. He hasn’t yet shared what’s next.
Gap is hiring a vice president of development in Los Angeles to develop and produce original content for the company’s brands, including Old Navy and Banana Republic. The role reports to Pam Kaufman, Gap’s newly appointed chief entertainment officer.
Noah Nusinow was promoted to chief financial officer at Propagate Content. Before that, he was senior vice president of finance and corporate development. The company, which recently raised $50 million, produces shows like “Chopped” and owns talent management firms including Select Management Group.
Sofia Hernandez, the global head of marketing at TikTok, announced she’s leaving the company after six years. In a LinkedIn post, Hernandez said she’s taking a break before deciding what’s next.
