For Katya Varbanova, a striking image of herself on a Santorini cliff at sunset, wearing a billowing hot-pink dress, felt iconic. It captured a moment of glamour and freedom. Yet, the moment never happened. She has never been to Santorini, nor owned that dress. The photo, generated entirely by artificial intelligence, became a lifeline for her business when a debilitating health crisis struck.
A Sudden Illness That Halted a Career
As the founder of a social media and AI marketing company, Varbanova's professional life revolved around visibility. Filming content and photoshoots were daily tasks, and her image was integral to building her brand. However, in October 2024, everything changed. She developed severe, unexplained reactions to everyday items like food, perfume, and dust, resulting in painful, itchy rashes across her face and body.
The physical symptoms were compounded by intense anxiety. "I didn't recognise myself in the mirror, let alone be on camera," she explains. Her face would become inflamed, and new rashes would appear constantly. Sleep became elusive, often only possible after hours of meditation. Forced to halt all travel and filming, Varbanova took a three-month health sabbatical to work with specialists. When she returned to work, she was emotionally and physically drained, needing a new way to maintain her online presence without being on camera daily.
The AI Breakthrough: From Skepticism to Shock
Turning to AI image generation felt like a potential solution, but Varbanova was initially skeptical. "I feared the images would look nothing like me," she admits. Her team had experimented with the tools during her recovery, but she hadn't seen convincing results. Eventually, she was persuaded to try. She uploaded 24 personal photos into an AI tool and prompted it to create an editorial-style shot of her walking in Dubai with the Burj Al Arab in the background.
The results left her stunned. "It was me. Not a cartoon version or some uncanny valley deepfake," she recalls. The images looked authentically like professional photos from a real shoot. The reaction from her fiancé, friends, family, and clients was one of disbelief, with many asking how they could achieve similar results. This moment revealed that AI could offer her complete creative control and freedom of expression for her brand, without the physical demands of traditional photoshoots.
Navigating the Ethics of a Digital Persona
Since that first experiment, 'AI Katya' has travelled virtually to Paris, the Maldives, and New York. She has posed in luxurious villas and taken on viral challenges. Varbanova uses these images partly for fun and partly as an AI content educator to showcase the technology's potential. However, she is adamant about transparency. She always discloses when a publicly posted photo is AI-generated.
"I disagree with people who use it to mislead or misinform," she states, criticising those who hide the AI origin of photos or replicate others' images as their own. She believes that using AI creatively and honestly to express oneself is not only acceptable but is becoming the norm, citing its use in publications like Vogue and as a sought-after skill on resumes.
She also warns of potential psychological pitfalls, noting that constantly generating idealized versions of oneself—looking younger or slimmer—could backfire and increase self-consciousness. Yet, she points out that altering one's image is not new, referencing the long-standing use of tools like Photoshop and FaceTune.
For Varbanova, this technology has been transformative. It restored a sense of normalcy and creative joy during a period of sickness and powerlessness. She uses AI to test aesthetics, visualise outfits, and even create inspirational vision board images of herself giving keynote speeches. While she looks forward to the day she can travel and do real shoots again, for now, AI Katya is taking centre stage. "And honestly," she concludes, "she's killing it."
