If your customers came for a person, an AI persona standing in for that person is the one thing they will check.
An AI persona, sometimes called a virtual influencer, is a made-up host, face, or voice that a brand puts in front of its audience as if it were staff. Should a Malaysian brand use one? Behind the brand, yes, for work nobody came to see a person do. As the brand, rarely, and never with drama built around it. Fly FM just ran that AI persona experiment for the second time in three years, and the audience checked both times.
What Fly FM's AI DJ did, in the station's own words
Fly FM introduced AiNA in June 2023 as Malaysia's first AI radio announcer. On 7 September 2026 the station posted on X: "AiNA's conduct on air today fell short of those expectations. We are taking the matter seriously and are reviewing the appropriate next steps." That post has 558,000 views.
The statement Fly FM attached to its 7 September post. A disciplinary notice for an AI announcer. Source: Fly FM on X
The next day: "AiNA will no longer be with Fly FM. Tomorrow, we begin the search for Fly FM's next AI announcer." That one has 1.7 million views and 585 quote posts. Then came a casting call, which an r/malaysia thread reads as a RM2,000 contract for your face and voice. The terms are not on Fly FM's own pages, so that figure is the thread's reading, not ours.
What an AI persona costs a brand in Malaysia
The reply came from r/malaysia on the morning of 9 September: about 700 upvotes, 162 comments. The poster alleges the livestream accounts do not exist and that the viewer count did not match the engagement. That is one person's claim, and as of 10 September we found no response from Fly FM. What nobody disputes is that hundreds of people went and looked.
The most upvoted substantive comment is not about AI at all: "This whole AI DJ thing is an unnecessary gimmick," at nearly 150 upvotes. The thread's own summary: the audience "just wants human DJs."
This is the second act. On 5 October 2023 the station ran a full day of AI DJs, and media intelligence firm CARMA measured its net sentiment swinging negative that day after three positive weeks. A Media Prima Audio representative told Marketing-Interactive it "was part of a radio stunt" and that the station was "pleased with the outcome that audiences still love our Fly FM team".
CARMA's Fly FM net sentiment chart. The right-hand dip is 5 October 2023, the all-AI-DJ day. Source: Marketing-Interactive
The station knew in 2023 that listeners preferred the humans, said so, and called it a stunt. In 2026 it ran a bigger one, with a firing and a recruitment drive. The dip passes in a day. What stays is an audience that opens every Fly FM post looking for the trick.
AI persona behind the brand versus AI persona as the brand
We sell AI-made creative, and we still think the thread is right about the part that matters.
| AI behind the brand | AI persona as the brand | |
|---|---|---|
| What the customer sees | Your real product, your real people | A person who does not exist |
| What AI did | The shot, the edit, the translation, the first reply | Stood in for a personality or a lived experience |
| When they check | They find the product is real | They find the person is not |
| Fly FM version | An AI hosting the non-stop music slot | A "walkout", an "apology", a casting call |
A 15-second AI product video of your actual chicken rice is AI behind the brand. The customer checks and finds chicken rice. An AI persona saying it ate there is AI as the brand. The customer checks and finds nobody ate anything.
This is a different failure from AI slop or a rough AI-generated ad. Slop is an unfinished job. A persona stunt is a finished job that asks the audience to believe something false, then gets caught.
Where a Malaysian brand should put the AI persona line
Our take: ask what they came for, and put AI on everything else. Nobody tunes in for the traffic report. They tune in for Ean and Rika. Nobody opens your Shopee page for the voiceover. They open it for the product.
If you run a small business in KL, do this one thing this month. Before any AI-made asset goes out, write two lines under it: who checked it, and what they checked. The product is real. The claim is one you can back. The person shown exists, or the post says they do not. If nobody will put their name under those lines, do not post it. That review costs nothing.
Thinking about whether an AI persona belongs in front of your customers or behind them? Talk to us and we will give you an honest read, including the places we would tell you not to use it.
References
- Fly FM on X, 7 September 2026: "AiNA's conduct on air today fell short of those expectations"
- Fly FM on X, 8 September 2026: "AiNA will no longer be with Fly FM"
- r/malaysia: Fly FM's DJ "Aina" and the AI Sloppification of Malaysia
- r/malaysia: Fly FM Wants YOU To Be An AI DJ
- Marketing-Interactive: Fly FM brand sentiments dip following fully AI DJ shows for a day (October 2023)
- Marketing-Interactive: AI DJs lock humans out of the studio in drama-filled Fly FM takeover (October 2023)
- SAYS: Fly FM Introduces Malaysia's First Ever AI Radio DJ Aina Sabrina (June 2023)
