The transparency tax on virtual influencer engagement

Saxena, Prashant; Prahl, Andrew

Under review

The transparency tax.

International Journal of Advertising · Taylor & Francis

ABDC 2025 ASJR 2025 Q1SJR value 3.182h-index 95

Standing of the target journal, not an achieved publication credential.

Saxena, P., & Prahl, A. (manuscript under review). The transparency tax on virtual influencer engagement. International Journal of Advertising.

What the study finds

Across 1,531 Instagram posts, AI disclosure lifted engagement 19.2%, yet lower felt authenticity appeared when the account leaned too hard on disclosure.

Where it sits in the programme

This is one of six studies testing synthetic authenticity across care, social robots, AI influencers, classrooms, shopping agents and companion AI. Definitions for every construct used here are on the concepts page. The full programme, with journal standing for each venue, is on the research page.

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Synthetic Authenticity is Prashant Saxena’s research programme on how AI personas, including social robots, virtual influencers, companions, advisers and shopping agents, earn, exercise and lose legitimacy. It examines what makes an artificial persona appropriate enough to trust, buy from, learn from, disclose to or permit to act, and where acceptance turns into scrutiny, resistance or dependence. Written for CMOs, policymakers, deans, AI builders, communications leaders and the media.

Prashant Saxena is a Singaporean practitioner-scholar who coined the term Synthetic Authenticity. He researches AI personas at Nanyang Technological University, teaches at business schools, and leads revenue for Isentia across Southeast Asia, where he advises government agencies and brands.

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A personal research site. Views are the author’s own and are not those of Isentia or Nanyang Technological University. Disclosures, affiliations and data provenance.

AI-persona photographs and open assets via Wikimedia Commons: Willy Jackson, Xavier Care, RuinDig/Yuki Uchida, ITU Pictures, Tekniska museet/Peter Hall, and public-domain AI-generated media. Care and shopping-agent interface assets generated for Synthetic Authenticity. Graded to site palette.