The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify social media posts by influencers that are in breach of the advertising code.
The tools will evaluate activity by influencers and assess if they are disclosing content correctly.
Under Irish law, commercial content must be labelled as advertising.
New research by ASAI shows that inauthenticity, photoshopping, too many paid ads and influencers misrepresenting real life are the top traits that cause annoyance amongst Irish consumers.
The study found that only one in ten people have trust in what influencers post on social media, while over 62% believe that influencers post too much sponsored content.
The research also shows that not all consumers are familiar with the various hashtags used to label commercial content, such as #sponsored, #ad, #sp and #iworkwith.
ASAI said the results of its research indicate that there is a need for additional guidance for both consumers and influencers, particularly around labelling.
The authority said it is working with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) on updated guidance to ensure there is increased clarity in relation to responsibilities and requirements from influencers when advertising on social media.
"As we can see from this research, over half of those surveyed remain bothered by both the lack of transparency in influencer marketing and not being able to distinguish content from advertising, which echoes similar results to the Social Media Influencer Report released by the CCPC last December," said ASAI Chief Executive Orla Twomey.
"To help with this we are planning to continue implementing the use of AI tools and working with the CCPC to develop further guidance," Ms Twomey said.
CCPC member Kevin O'Brien said the commission welcomed the ASAI's on-going work on consumers’ understanding of how influencers and brands operate on social media platforms.
"Similar to our own research, published late last year, the ASAI’s research reinforces that platforms and brands must take greater responsibility for educating and informing their users and consumers, and must support influencers in clearly and consistently labelling paid content so that consumers are not misled," Mr O'Brien said.
