The news: The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s 2025 Creator Economy report shows that creator marketing is a core media channel entering a period of measurable, AI-assisted scale.

• Creator spending will reach $37.1 billion in 2025, growing 26% YoY, or four times faster than the broader ad market, IAB suggests.
• Our own forecast predicts $12.2 billion in US influencer marketing spending next year; our figure excludes creator content amplified as paid media, while the much-larger IAB figure includes those as well as content adjacencies.