What if there were two versions of you: the real, irreplaceable you and a digital copy of you who exhibited your personality, voice, and style.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is making this more than a futuristic possibility. Today, you can create an AI avatar that looks and sounds like you or perhaps someone you’ve always dreamed of.
An AI avatar is a digital representation of a person that can simulate human-like behaviors, interactions, and emotions. They can look like humans or take on a more creative, lifelike character appearance.
If you’re interested in creating one of your own, AI image generators can help. These platforms allow users to generate images and avatars that resemble real-world objects, scenes, or artistic concepts. Simply provide descriptive prompts about their character’s experience (or upload a photo), and the AI image generator does the rest to bring your avatar to life.
Brands and businesses are already using AI avatars to create more engaging user experiences with human-like interactions. Here’s how.
AI avatars can make educational content and presentations more interactive. For example, a course creator can use an AI avatar to read scripted material in a way that simulates the experience of having a teacher lead the class. Businesses can consider using avatars for:
Did you know? The talent management platform SmartExpert used Elai.io to generate over 10,000 minutes of training videos. By using virtual AI avatars, SmartExpert saved their clients over $70,000 in video production costs.
Some workers use AI avatars as personal assistants to help schedule meetings, automatically draft emails, block time on the calendar for focused work, and set reminders for important tasks. These avatars often work behind the scenes, so they may only sometimes be visually apparent.
Take Mavy, for example, an AI executive assistant from Mavex.ai. Mavy can manage scheduling, time management, and email drafting - just like a human assistant. You can see what Mavy looks like below; unlike some other AI avatars that aren’t visible, but their impact is undeniable.
Source: Mavex AI on YouTube
Many video games use AI avatars, and some services allow users to create customized AI gaming avatars for a more personalized experience. These digital representations enable users to reflect real or imaginary personalities, styles, and individuality. AKOOL is a generative AI platform where individuals can create AI gaming avatars in simple steps for use in Twitch, Discord, or any other platform. Below is an example of an AI avatar that an AKOOL community member created:
Source: AKOOL
AI avatars are also enhancing customer service experiences by providing 24/7 support without human workers available around the clock.
Nonghyup Bank (NH Bank), a leading banking institution in South Korea, partnered with DeepBrain AI to generate two customer avatars for their in-bank kiosks. These avatars offer around-the-clock support, providing a more accessible and interactive customer experience at the bank’s branches.
Source: DeepBrain AI
AI avatars offer several benefits for businesses and their customers. Some of these benefits include the following.
From a learning and customer service perspective, AI avatars can make virtual interactions more engaging than their traditional text-based counterparts. When done right, their visual and sometimes animated presence can make conversations feel more personable.
Unlike human staff members, AI avatars provide 24/7 accessibility around the clock, broadening the customer experience to allow access anytime and anywhere. Customers don’t have to wait in line in a chat tool, wait multiple days for an email response, or sit on hold on the telephone - AI avatars are always on, offering instant help.
In gaming, AI avatars enhance experiences by providing a range of customizable and personalized options they might not otherwise have. These customizations let users express themselves in ways that go beyond traditional avatars.
AI avatars can make digital spaces more accessible by supporting multiple languages and catering to different needs. They can adapt to different languages, communication styles, and tones, extending one carefully curated message to different audiences in a resonant way. This capability is valuable in global or multicultural settings, like educational settings, where inclusivity is crucial. By offering interactions in a user’s preferred language, AI avatars help create a more equitable environment where everyone can access the same content without barriers.
Additionally, AI avatars can be designed to support individuals with specific accessibility needs, such as providing auditory assistance for those with hearing impairments or text-to-speech functionalities for easier interaction. These features contribute to a more inclusive and accessible digital environment.
AI avatars offer cost savings by automating tasks that would otherwise require human labor. For example, an AI avatar can be repurposed for an online training course instead of paying a human course instructor to attend each session.
In customer service scenarios, 24/7 availability via AI avatars may allow businesses to reduce staffing costs. By reducing the need for instructors and customer service representatives, companies can reallocate these resources to focus on higher-value, creative activities that AI systems can’t replicate.
Not only do AI avatars help some businesses cut back on costs, but they also help workers gain valuable time back. AI assistants like Mavy, for example, reduce the time an employee spends scheduling meetings, manually managing their calendar, and drafting simple emails. Instead, they can reallocate time to critical tasks that drive business value.
While AI avatars offer numerous benefits, they aren’t without some potential drawbacks worth considering before use.
There are many ethical concerns surrounding AI avatars. Using AI avatars in sensitive areas, such as mental health support, can raise ethical issues if not designed or supervised appropriately. While AI avatars are helpful with some tasks, they aren’t a substitute for support from trained human professionals and might degrade the quality of care, particularly when dealing with emotional or crisis situations.
Another concern is that AI avatars, like other AI tools, can unintentionally reflect biases in their responses and behavior based on the data they were trained on. This can result in discriminatory or unfair treatment of users based on many factors, including race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
While AI avatars are powerful and can be used positively, they can also be used to spread misinformation and manipulate others when used unethically. Consider generating a custom AI avatar that looks and sounds like a company’s CEO. Not only are there concerns about using an AI avatar that isn’t the actual person to convey a message, but if the AI avatar falls into the wrong hands, someone could use it to share inaccurate information as a misconstrued form of power.
AI avatars often require personal and sensitive information for personalized interactions and tailored behaviors. This raises concerns about data privacy and security, as sensitive information could be vulnerable to breaches or misuse. It’s essential to consider how much data to share and the potential vulnerabilities involved.
Over-reliance on AI avatars for customer service or support could decrease human interaction, which may feel impersonal in certain contexts. To add onto it, AI avatars may also lack empathy, tone, body language, and other nuanced cues that authentic human interactions provide, which can lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding.
It’s important to consider that some users may feel uncomfortable interacting with AI avatars and prefer speaking directly with a human. To provide the best experience, consider what these AI-to-human escalation channels might look like to prevent service disruptions and delays.
With advances in artificial intelligence technologies, AI avatars have made headlines across the globe over the past few years.
In June 2024, Eric Yuan, founder and chief executive of Zoom, discussed the idea of sending AI avatars to meetings. During an interview with The Verge, Yaun suggested that using AI avatars in this way could free up time for in-person interactions and creativity.
During the interview, Yuan said, “You and I can have more time to have more in-person interactions, but maybe not for work. Maybe for something else. Why do we need to work five days a week? Down the road, four days or three days. Why not spend more time with your family? Why not focus on some more creative things, giving you back your time, giving back to the community and society to help others, right? Today, the reason why we cannot do that is because every day is busy, five days a week. It’s boring.”
Yuan believes that society is just a few years away from a future where sending AI avatars to meetings could be possible.
In June 2024, a British artificial intelligence startup backed by Nvidia called Synthesia announced new product features that included producing a full-body avatar using a phone or webcam. CNBC wrote, “One of the biggest new features the firm showed off was an option to make AI-generated avatars by recording less than five minutes of footage using a webcam or your phone. You can also clone your voice to have the avatars speak in multiple different languages.”
Companies like Synthesia are making it easier for individuals everywhere to produce digital versions of themselves using their software in little to no time, growing the AI avatar landscape.
National Public Radio (NPR) published an article in July 2024 about Chinese companies using AI avatars to simulate deceased loved ones. Emily Feng for NPR wrote, “The idea to digitally clone people who have died is not new but until recent years had been relegated to the realm of science fiction. Now, increasingly powerful chatbots like Baidu’s Ernie or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which have been trained on huge amounts of language data, and serious investment in computing power have enabled private companies to offer affordable digital ‘clones’ of real people.”
Simulating those who have passed away raises ethical questions about creating technological representations of those no longer living.
AI avatars are powerful and versatile digital representations of humans with benefits across education, customer service, administration, and entertainment sectors. But as this technology evolves, it’s crucial to balance innovation with ethical responsibility. Data privacy, the risk of dehumanization, and ethical concerns must be carefully managed to ensure AI avatars contribute positively to both the digital and real worlds.
Need a hand? Learn how AI and natural language processing (NLP) powered voice assistants can help.
Edited by Monishka Agrawal
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