Challenges in the Digital Marketing Realm of Human-like Virtual Influencers: What Drives Instagram Users’ Engagement Intentions?

Human-like virtual influencers (VIs) have become an increasingly important component of social media marketing. Their human-like appearance can simultaneously attract users and, meanwhile, evoke discomfort associated with the uncanny valley. This study utilized quantitative research via partial least squares structural equation modeling. A total of 845 Instagram users contributed to the dataset. The findings demonstrated that informative content did not significantly influence Instagram users’ engagement intentions, whereas entertaining content exerted a favorable influence. Simultaneously perceived innovativeness was the strongest antecedent, while perceived personalization was also significant. In addition, both cognitive and affective empathy significantly strengthen parasocial relationships, which subsequently increase users’ engagement intentions toward human-like VIs. This study contributes in three ways. First, it identifies the relative importance of content, social relationships, and personal gratifications in explaining engagement intentions with human-like VIs. Second, it extends research by distinguishing the complementary roles of cognitive and affective empathy in fostering parasocial relationships with human-like VIs. Third, the findings suggest that cognitive and affective empathy may help explain why users form meaningful social relationships with highly human-like VIs despite concerns associated with perceived artificiality, thereby offering a more nuanced understanding of engagement intentions in the context of virtual influencer marketing.