Currently, booking an ad campaign with social media influencers can be a challenging and complicated process. This is largely due to the unconventional marketing approaches employed by influencers, as well as the lack of a standardized method for engaging with them. Furthermore, marketing agencies that rely on large teams to manage and track brand campaigns are often limited in the number of influencers they can interact with at any given time.

To put it simply, the creator marketing ecosystem is being hindered by the traditional ad and marketing agency model. It would be far more efficient if an AI chatbot could handle the bulk of the work, communicating naturally with influencers through a platform that can scale across multiple ad campaigns simultaneously.

This is the core idea behind Agentic Marketing Technologies (AMT), a company that has recently secured $3.5 million in seed funding from San Francisco-based venture capital firm NFX.

AMT’s approach involves utilizing its AI agent, Lyra, to engage with influencers using natural language, streamlining tasks such as campaign booking, result tracking, payment processing, and query resolution. The company claims that Lyra is also capable of autonomously identifying influencers that align with a campaign’s objectives.

Tom Hollands, co-founder and CEO of AMT, has firsthand experience with the challenges of managing influencer marketing budgets. His co-founder, Christian Johnston, who serves as CTO, has a background in building adtech data infrastructure.

According to Hollands, the current market is plagued by inefficiencies, where scaling influencer marketing typically involves hiring young staff and overloading them with partnerships until they become overwhelmed. He noted that these employees often struggle to recall the names of influencers they interact with and spend a significant amount of time on manual follow-ups.

AMT’s solution combines various AI models, including OpenAI’s general-use model, Google’s Gemini for multimodal analysis, and Hume AI’s tone analysis. Hollands emphasized that the company uses the most suitable model for each task, regardless of the provider.

Hollands argues that AI’s ability to “watch” and “understand” influencer content enables it to provide a more personalized experience. He noted that AI can comprehend the tone of voice employed by each influencer, allowing it to communicate with them across multiple brands in a manner similar to a human partnerships manager.

Since its launch three months ago, AMT, which is relocating from London to San Francisco, has already attracted clients such as Le Petit Luetier, Neoplants, and Wild.

The influencer market is projected to reach a value of $266.92 billion this year. Traditional influencer marketing SaaS platforms like GRIN and Upfluence, as well as marketplaces like ShopMy and Agentio, rely on human involvement to manage campaigns and typically charge per seat. In contrast, AMT’s AI-driven approach has significantly different economics, as it requires far fewer human resources.

AMT claims that its platform can reduce the time required to secure a single influencer partnership from nine hours of manual work to just five minutes.

Pete Flint, general partner at NFX, stated, “AI is revolutionizing industries, and marketing is no exception. AMT’s approach is unique in that it’s not just building tools, but replacing human work with AI, making it an essential part of the marketing stack for brands worldwide.”