Last week, I decided to create an AI influencer, and in just 3 videos, it has generated almost 50k organic views.
took me around 20 minutes to create him.
I got this idea because I saw a monk on Instagram with over 2 million followers. After looking at him carefully, I realized he was completely made with AI….
So I went down a deep rabbit hole and found several AI influencers just like him, and it got me intrigued: How can I do this?
So I spent over 10 hours figuring out the best way to create him, and I’m now giving you everything you need to know in this newsletter.
A Quick Caveat
Before we get to the tools, just one piece of advice: Some of the AI influencers I see are selling digital products that I wouldn't recommend buying.
The internet is turning into a scary place where a lot of people are going to get scammed.
If you’re planning on creating an avatar like this, please be sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.
I’m using this AI avatar because I want to test this new tech and use several “influencers” to iterate fast. It allows me to test what content works in different niches without needing to film myself or hire someone else.
So pinky promise you’re not going to scam people?
Thanks.
The Process
1. The Concept & Reference
For this avatar, I wanted to create a really fit man in his late 60s or early 70s.
Prompts for image generation normally work best if you give them a reference image, so I used the AI Monk as a reference to ensure the LLM knew the vibe I was going for.
AI Monk image I attached to ChatGPT
2. The Prompt (The Secret Sauce)
I used ChatGPT to reverse-engineer the prompt. I uploaded the reference image and asked:
"Using this image as reference, please create a Nano Banana Pro Prompt for a really muscular old man in his home gym with a sleeveless shirt that says 'eat more protein'."
Once ChatGPT gave me the text prompt, I asked it to convert it into a JSON prompt.
(Note: If you don’t know what JSON is, it’s basically a structured format that organizes data into readable "keys" and "values." Instead of a long paragraph, it breaks the image down into specific instructions like "Lighting: Soft," "Camera: Wide," "Subject: Male." This helps the image generator follow instructions much more accurately.)
3. Generating the Image
After I had my prompt, I went into Higgsfield, selected their Nano Banana Pro feature, and pasted the prompt.
I created around 10 variations until I got exactly what I wanted.
This is the real secret: normally, the first image you get is not the best, so you have to iterate.
These were the first images that were created
I kept asking Higgsfield to change the small details I didn’t like until he looked perfect.
I finally found the “Avatar” I thought looked great.
Some comments say that he kinda looks like a mix of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris (and I definitely see it now)…
4. Setting the Scenes
I knew I wanted him to "react" to content, so I needed a specific shot. I prompted a second image of him holding an iPhone 17 Pro in his hands.
Now I had my two assets: The main avatar and the reaction shot.
5. The Voice (ElevenLabs)
I went to ElevenLabs to handle the audio.
You can create your own voice, but IMO most of the default ElevenLabs voices sound really fake. To get the best results, you should either choose one from the "User Generated" library (community voices) or clone your own voice.
I chose a user-generated one, pas
ted the script I wrote using Claude, and downloaded the audio file.
6. Animation
I went into HeyGen and clicked on "Photo to vide” I selected my fit grandpa image and uploaded the audio I downloaded from ElevenLabs.
Pro Tip: You can connect ElevenLabs directly inside HeyGen, but don't do it. After some testing, I’ve seen that we tend to get much more realistic lip-sync results if you download the file from ElevenLabs first and upload it manually to HeyGen.
7. The Edit
And that was it. I had the raw video. I sent it to my editor to stitch it up in Premiere Pro, add the reaction overlay, and add some captions.
You can do this pretty easily on CapCut if you don’t know how to use Premiere Pro.
And that’s pretty much it!
FYI: If you’ve always wanted to create content but don’t have the time, I can help you build an AI avatar of yourself to create the content for you. Reply to this email if you’re interested!