The AI starter pack trend is taking over LinkedIn and TikTok
What’s in your office starter pack? La Colombe cold brew and a New Yorker subscription? Bose headphones and Brooks Brothers?
Thanks to the latest ChatGPT trend making the rounds, you can now find out. By uploading a few photos and using a specific prompt, OpenAI’s GPT-4o image generator will spit out a personalized action figure or Barbie box in your likeness—complete with miniature accessories and sealed in plastic.
In the past week, the trend has started popping up across TikTok, X, and—where trends go to die—Facebook and LinkedIn.
“The Strategic Data & AI Consultant Starter Pack – Now in limited-edition blister packaging,” one LinkedIn user wrote alongside their post. “Unleash Your Inner Leader: The ‘Passion-Driven AI Impact’ Starter Pack!” wrote another.
A marketing agency in Texas called it “a cute way to re-introduce yourself to your audience, re-introduce your employees, or even make an ‘action figure,’ (or a few ‘action figures,’) of what your ideal target audience/consumer looks like.” Brands like Starbucks and NYX Cosmetics have also jumped on the trend. Even Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted her own AI-generated figure, complete with Bible and gavel.
The Congresswoman MTG Starter Kit ✨
— Marjorie Taylor Greene ???????? (@mtgreenee) April 10, 2025
If I was a doll!
I love all my accessories, including my Bible and gavel for DOGE Committee chair! pic.twitter.com/2fEWYH1Ubt
As with other recent AI trends, reception has been mixed. “People on LinkedIn turning themselves into cheap, plastic, replaceable products is the least surprising thing,” one X user posted. “Can we please stop mass using AI to create social media trends (for example, the action figure trend happening rn)?” another wrote.
People on LinkedIn turning themselves into cheap, plastic, replaceable products is the least surprising thing.
— akreon (@_akreon_) April 10, 2025
The counter-hashtag #StarterPackNoAI quickly began circulating among creatives pushing back against what they see as the erosion of artistic labor. The starter pack trend follows closely on the heels of the controversial Studio Ghibli AI trend, which sparked debate over whether OpenAI was unfairly using the work of artists, including Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki.
Environmental and cultural concerns aside, some users simply hate to see the TikTokification of LinkedIn.
“Went over to LinkedIn for a break from tariff world is ending doomscrolling. Got a feed full of ‘I made myself an action figure,’” another X user complained. “Take me back doomscrollers.”