Many people now associate artificial intelligence and social media with fictional personalities or highly improbable scenes — such as the Pope wearing Balenciaga or Renaissance paintings coming to life — but that’s not the full picture. New uses of AI are starting to quietly influence decisions behind the scenes on social apps.

Thanks in part to the AI revival, start-ups are creating new tools that use the tech to increase likes, revenue and accuracy on organic, traditional content. Now, AI can estimate how a post will perform on social media, or compare best choices among various potential options. It can mimic a human talent agent to negotiate the terms of sponsored content between a brand and an influencer, and it can help legitimise luxury resellers by authenticating products. The end result is still the same familiar, human-created content, but the means are heavily influenced by new uses of AI.