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February 18, 2026
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February 18, 2026
Fandom is one of the most powerful forces shaping culture today—and one of the most misunderstood.
At KR&I, we’ve spent more than a decade researching fans, fandoms, and the love relationships people form with the stories, worlds, characters, teams, and creative works that matter most to them.
These aren’t casual preferences. Fandom is identity work, community-building, emotional fulfillment, and aspiration rolled into one. It drives how we understand ourselves and how we connect with others.
When we explored the intersection of AI and fandom with Dscout, what we found surprised even us: fans are adopting AI earlier, faster, and more enthusiastically than we imagined. And the ripple effects will be profound for brands, creators, platforms, and fan communities in the years ahead.
This article is based on the webinar The AI-Powered Customer: What Fans Are Doing (and Avoiding). You can watch it here.
To understand why fans are adopting AI so quickly, it’s important to understand the magnitude and meaning of fandom in contemporary life.
Fandom is a love relationship—a deep, identity-relevant, emotionally nourishing bond between a person and something they care about. When we’re fans, we feel both seen by the object of fandom and elevated by it. It reflects back something important about who we are, while also inspiring us with what humans are capable of creating.
Fandom is also mainstream. In our most recent national quantitative study.
“83% of people said they consider themselves a fan of something. We call those beloved things ‘objects of fandom’—or ‘OOFs’—and they span far beyond the stereotypes of sports teams and sci-fi franchises.”
Fans aren’t just people who like something; they’re people who care about it deeply enough that it becomes part of their identity. And because identity is multifaceted, most of us have multiple fandoms—on average, five. Those “objects of fandom” range from entertainment properties to hobbies, athletes, musicians, games, and even products that reflect who we are and what we value.
Fans express their love through a set of predictable, universal practices—activities that mirror what we do when we’re in love:
Social media transformed fandom by connecting isolated fans into always-on global communities, unlocking constant conversation, shared meaning-making, and easier access to information and content.
It created a secondary social realm where fandom became a powerful mode of self-expression. Today, fandom is normalized culturally—you can walk into any fifth-grade cafeteria and kids will tell you what fandoms they’re in.
We launched this study with one central goal: to understand how fans are already using generative AI—and how they imagine using it in the future. We wanted to uncover not just behaviors, but motivations, hopes, fears, and the emerging norms forming around AI in fan life. Ultimately, we wanted to know: what does AI mean for the future of fans, fandom, and fan-driven experiences?
We used a four-step mixed-method approach, beginning with analysis of online conversations about AI among fan communities. Then we fielded a screener through Dscout—240 fans applied, all of whom had used AI and none of whom rejected it outright. We selected 48 for a diary study capturing real-time AI use, and then conducted one-on-one live interviews with six participants to go deeper into needs, emotions, and future expectations.
Adoption was far higher than we expected—nearly three-quarters of fans had already used AI for something fandom-related by summer 2024. Most commonly, they’d experimented with conversational AI tools like ChatGPT. If we ran the screener again today, we’re confident that number would be even higher.
“[AI] Adoption has been recent but rapid, fueled by positive experience.”
Most fans started using AI within the past year, yet the majority already use it weekly or more. And 80% said AI had improved their fan experience. Once they try it, they quickly find value—especially in learning, planning, and enhancing the emotional side of fandom.
Some fans treat AI as an occasional side resource—something to use when they’re curious or bored. Others are already incorporating it more deliberately into their fan routines. But across the board, fans described their use as exploratory, playful, and experimental.
Through diaries and interviews, we identified six distinct roles AI is already playing in fans’ lives. Some echo long-standing fan practices; others represent entirely new possibilities.
This was the most common use case. Fans rely on AI to help them understand complex worlds, catch up on long-running narratives, interpret lore, and translate or summarize dense information. They describe it as having an expert tutor in their pocket—faster and easier than searching forums or piecing together wikis.
Examples include:
Forecasting taps into one of fandom’s most beloved practices: theorizing and speculating about what comes next. Fans turn to AI to predict outcomes, estimate release dates, or get non-biased breakdowns of upcoming events.
Examples include:
In this role, AI acts like a personal assistant—helping fans plan, organize, shop, and discover new experiences. This is especially powerful for busy fans who want to maximize special moments without spending hours researching.
Examples:
AI is expanding who gets to participate in fan creativity. Fans who never saw themselves as “artists” or “writers” are now creating fan art, fan fiction, posters, original characters, and mashups that previously required specialized skills.
Examples:
This was the most unexpected finding. Fans are treating AI like a fan buddy—someone who shares their enthusiasm, validates their feelings, and talks with them when no one in their personal life shares the same fandom.
Examples:
AI also acts as a conduit—letting fans “talk” directly with their objects of fandom. Whether the character is fictional, deceased, or unreachable in real life, AI can simulate the interaction.
Examples:
Despite enthusiasm, many fans already have clear boundaries around what’s acceptable.
Fans welcome AI as a tool, but never as a substitute for the human creativity, talent, and judgment they admire. They don’t want AI writing the script for their favorite series or composing the music of their favorite artist. Enhancement? Yes. Replacement? Absolutely not.
Fans look up to the human capabilities behind the work—craft, imagination, athleticism, performance, artistry. That elevating quality is central to fandom. If AI intrudes on that, it disrupts the reason fans fell in love in the first place.
They’re eager for AI-generated suggestions, ideas, and possibilities. But they want to make the final decisions themselves—from picking merch to choosing fantasy rosters. They’ve fought hard for their agency and don’t want to hand it over.
Participation is a defining element of fandom. Even when AI simplifies tasks, fans want room to contribute their own creativity, judgment, and emotional investment. If AI removes too much friction, some fear it may diminish the sense of reward.
Fans are highly sensitive to quality. When corners are cut, they immediately detect it. They don’t want AI flooding fan spaces with low-effort content (“slop”) or signaling that brands care more about output volume than artistry.
Fans see AI’s capacity for deep emotional connection—and the risks that come with it. AI companions can, in some cases, replace human relationships, increasing vulnerability to both loneliness and influence. Several high-profile cases involving teens and character chatbots underscore the urgency of thoughtful regulation.
As we reflect on this research, what stands out most is the sheer velocity of change. Fans are early adopters not because they’re technophiles, but because fandom itself is a high-motivation space—rich with emotion, identity, belonging, and the desire to go deeper. AI slots naturally into that landscape.
It helps fans learn faster, create more confidently, connect more deeply, and elevate everyday experiences into something that feels personal and meaningful. In many ways, AI is amplifying the very things that make fandom powerful.
But amplification comes with responsibility. Fans aren’t approaching AI blindly—they’re approaching it thoughtfully, with clear expectations and strong boundaries. They want innovation that respects the humanity of what they love. They want tools that support—not substitute—their agency, their communities, and the creative brilliance that inspires them in the first place.
As AI evolves, the most successful applications will be those that honor the emotional core of fandom: connection, identity, self-expression, and the joy of loving something deeply.
