Adoption Of Virtual Influencers by The Healthcare Industry: Benefits and Drawbacks

<em>Social media influencers are thought leaders and influence others' attitudes, opinions, and behaviors (Pourkarim et al., 2023. Laszkiewicz & Kalinska, 2023). The healthcare industry currently utilizes social media and social media influencers to provide generalized health advice and opinions on and experiences with different providers (Reed & Feilding, 2022). However, the use of social media by healthcare businesses is still relatively novel (Gijsen et al., 2020), although it is becoming increasingly used for healthcare education and decision-making (Stellefson et al., 2020). Within the social media marketing space, there has been a rise in the use of virtual influencers. A Virtual influencer (VI) is "a computer-generated avatar with humanlike characteristics, including personal backstories, which generate high-quality lifelike content on social media" (Brown, 2020, p. 8). This research looks to understand how virtual influencers differ from human social media influencers and how they can effectively be integrated into the healthcare industry. The outcomes of virtual influencer integration and stakeholder perceptions are also discussed before managerial implications and further research areas are identified.<strong></strong></em>