In early June 2026, tech creator Roberto Nickson posted the first episode of his series as a paid partnership, and the next morning he wrote that it had a million views. This year the US magazine The Hollywood Reporter (THR) also included in its list of the most powerful creator reps three firms for expert creators who explain technology, business or careers, and the deals it names for them come mainly from tech companies. Nickson's reps sold his series about life with an AI assistant to Anthropic, the company that develops that assistant.
Nickson is represented by Rakugo Media, which describes itself on its website as "Tech’s Talent Agency". For its clients it has negotiated partnerships worth several million dollars with companies including OpenAI and Nvidia. The agency was not in last year's edition of the list, published in October 2025. Neither of those two companies nor Anthropic was mentioned in that text. In it, ADDITION Talent Management represented tech YouTuber iJustine. Smooth Media and The Drive Agency were also missing.
Drive represents experts from LinkedIn and X
The Drive Agency is a management firm for creators with expertise in tech, AI, data science, B2B and careers. It was founded in March 2025. The firm has closed deals with Adobe, ElevenLabs and Replit, among others. Its chief, Patrick Zielinski, previously helped build the Top Voices programme at LinkedIn.
LinkedIn also makes room for creator managers in its own Creator Marketplace, where a creator can choose to bring their management into negotiations with brands. LinkedIn launched it in June 2026. Creators in EU countries do not have it yet. The company has opened it only to selected members in the US and Canada.
In May 2026, the Paris-based firm Favikon ranked the most influential LinkedIn members in Czechia using its own data on audience, engagement and views. In first place is Hana Kobzová, an independent pay-per-click advertising specialist. Second is David Navrátil, chief economist at the Czech bank Česká spořitelna. At least nine of the twenty places, however, are held by company heads, executives or founders, four of whom sit on bank leadership teams.
Tech companies come to Drive for specialists in a narrow field. "When IBM comes to us, it’s because they’ve seen this creator talk about data analytics at a very specific level that aligns with whatever messaging they want to get out," Zielinski told Net Influencer. In June 2026, Drive's career creator Colin Rocker was at the Cannes Lions advertising festival with the Adobe Firefly team. His relationship with the brand began at the same festival a year earlier and grew into a long-term ambassadorship.
Smooth represents so-called knowledge creators
New York-based Smooth Media helped with campaigns for Anthropic, Notion and Microsoft. The firm was founded by former staff of the Morning Brew newsletter. Smooth represents knowledge creators, whom it describes on its website as "those who educate and empower their audiences through smart, insightful content". Its creators cover topics ranging from AI and engineering to HR, personal finance and cybersecurity.
Smooth is doubling its team of creator managers, Alisa Quintana from the firm's people team wrote on LinkedIn in October 2026, after the list was published. The firm is hiring for Creator Manager and Senior Creator Manager roles. Work is in the office from Monday to Thursday. The senior manager will oversee more than 15 active creators and will work in New York on a base salary of $115,000 plus commission.
Microsoft and Google paid creators $400,000 to $600,000 for long-term partnerships lasting several months, the US broadcaster CNBC reported in February 2026, citing a person familiar with the deals. Representatives of both companies declined to comment. Some of the creators approached, however, turned down deals from AI companies for ethical, environmental and creative reasons. Others fear a hostile reaction from their audience. Creator Jack Lepiarz turned down a $20,000 deal to promote an AI image generation tool. He said he could not in good conscience support anything that would make it harder for ordinary people to make a living.
Alongside the tech deals in the list, the websites of all three firms also show creators and brands from other sectors. On its website, Smooth lists the payments company Visa among its partners alongside Anthropic. Drive's roster includes a creator who talks about family life and travel, and the firm lists the beauty brand Dove among its partners. On Rakugo Media's page for businesses, the logos of Walmart and BMW also appear under a heading about campaigns for the world's most important companies.
Nickson posted the second episode of the series Life with Claude, named after Anthropic's AI assistant, in September 2026, again as a paid partnership. "I think the future of creator marketing is shifting from brands sponsoring a story, to becoming a character in one," he wrote about it on X.
Comments