AI Personality Awards launch with GBP £67,000 prize

OpenArt and Fanvue, with ElevenLabs as a founding partner, have launched the AI Personality of the Year Awards for AI influencers in the UK and internationally.

The awards will recognise AI-generated personalities across categories including entertainers, lifestyle creators, comedians, fitness experts and fictional characters. Organisers have set a total prize fund of USD $90,000, or about GBP £67,000, with USD $10,000 for the overall winner.

The launch reflects the growing scale of the AI influencer market. Citing industry estimates, the organisers said the sector is expected to exceed £22 billion in 2026, within a wider creator economy forecast to reach £746 billion by 2030.

Entries will be judged on four criteria: quality, social clout, brand appeal and inspiration. The panel includes Andrew Bloch, Gil Rief, Sergi Cerrato and Kevin Van Witt, creator of The Monster Library.

Several well-known virtual personalities have also been named as ambassadors, including Aitana Lopez, described by organisers as Spain's first million-dollar AI influencer, and Tilly Norwood, the British AI actress who drew attention in Hollywood last year.

Creator market

The awards are intended to spotlight the people behind AI personalities as software tools make it easier to build digital characters and audiences. That places the programme at the intersection of synthetic media, creator monetisation and online advertising, where virtual figures are increasingly competing with human influencers for attention.

Fanvue said AI influencers are already generating income through brand partnerships and subscriptions, adding that Aitana Lopez earns more than USD $20,000 a month through those channels on its platform.

OpenArt said more than 9 million creators use its platform each month, which it positions as a place to develop virtual personalities and related media.

"With such a large community of creators exploring the possibilities of AI on OpenArt, our platform is focused on democratizing virtual storytelling," said Chloe Fang, Head of Strategy & Partnerships at OpenArt.

"Our goal is to empower everyone to build a personality, a world, and a community around it, without needing a studio budget or production team," she said.

Fang linked the launch to demand from users and industry participants.

"The overwhelming enthusiasm at our Summit in January clearly demonstrated the need for greater acknowledgment of this community, so we decided to launch the AI Personality of the Year awards with Fanvue and ElevenLabs," she said.

Commercial push

For Fanvue, the awards also highlight the commercial case for virtual creators as brands and audiences grow more comfortable engaging with AI-generated identities. The platform said AI and human creators are increasingly operating in the same market.

"The commercial potential of AI Influencers is huge," said Will Monange, co-founder and chief executive of Fanvue.

"This industry is powered by imaginative individuals, creators who may prefer not to be public-facing themselves, leveraging AI to realise their visions and scale and monetise them on Fanvue," he said.

"We're seeing AI Influencers across genres, from music to acting, sport and lifestyle, join the platform, engage with fans and monetise content," he added.

Fanvue said it hosts AI personalities such as Aitana Lopez as well as human public figures including Cardi B and Alisha Lehmann. That points to a market in which virtual and human creators are sold to audiences and advertisers through the same subscription and promotional systems.

ElevenLabs, which is backing the programme, said the number of AI influencers has risen sharply in a short period. Its involvement also suggests voice generation is becoming a more prominent part of how these digital identities are presented and judged.

"This industry is moving at a rapid pace. 18 months ago the number of AI Influencers globally was in the thousands, but now we're looking at millions. The progress over the past year has been staggering, and we're excited to help spotlight and support the next wave of talent emerging in such a rapidly evolving space," said Matty Shimura, Head of Chroma Awards at ElevenLabs.

The awards are the latest attempt to formalise a sector that has moved quickly from online novelty to a source of advertising revenue, subscriptions and entertainment projects. Entrants must develop their AI influencer on OpenArt's platform.