Ready or not, AI avatars are coming. TikTok recently rolled out a whole creative suite of AI-generated tools, including generative AI avatars for brands and creators. YouTube also has its own set of AI creator tools – even if its creators are wary of using them anytime soon. Another wave of AI avatars is set to make its way into the office, where avatars are being touted to help with anything from onboarding to scaling content from executive leaders.

AI avatars can be beneficial in business for some use cases – like internal training videos where content is typically delivered by a person – but marketers should consider the limitations avatars have as they create video content to communicate complex ideas and connect data to personalize video at scale – all while keeping AI governance and ethics best-practices in mind.

AI avatars are inadequate if they’re relied on exclusively to communicate complex topics via video. 

While avatars can scale the human elements of video – like having a person talk directly to the viewer – they should be utilized in combination with existing visual tools that have been proven to communicate more sophisticated topics. For instance, creators shouldn’t neglect on-screen text, visualizations and movement because of a new capability like an AI avatar. When looking to communicate complex topics, marketers would do well to focus on leveraging an avatar to provide the human element while using other video tools do the heavy lifting in expression.

Perhaps the easiest way to consider the role avatars should play in informational videos is by asking a few simple questions, like, “from what will people learn better: a person standing in front of them and lecturing them for 5 minutes, or an engaging, well-crafted video essay that features a range of content expression techniques?” After all, 65% of the population are visual learners – who best retain and recall information through visuals – compared to just 30% auditory learners, which is why video is so appealing as an educational tool. Creators will be most successful in using avatars when they are combined with proven video tools and techniques.

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AI avatars are limited when it comes to connecting data to personalize content at scale. 

Forrester reports that personalization continues to rank among the top use cases for AI in B2B organizations: 42% of AI-decision makers say personalizing customer interactions with genAI-enhanced experiences will be among their most important use cases for the technology over the next 12 months.

While avatars can deliver human facial expressions and body language through video, they are still limited when marketers need to connect data to video to communicate personalized messages and topics that require additional dynamic media to populate like images, videos and visuals. Retailers may require similar personalization. While a product explainer video that requires images and footage of the product’s features and capabilities can be incredibly impactful for businesses, those videos don’t need avatars to be compelling. For retailers that have tens of thousands or even millions of product SKUs, they need a video tool that can generate a unique video for each product by ingesting the product feed into one video template.

For residential customers with cable or energy services, a customer’s monthly billing statement can vary based on the previous month’s usage. By including data visualizations and line items for that specific month and customer, businesses can proactively answer inquiries about the change each month and therefore reduce inbound calls.

As another example, for software companies whose product UI and feature set change with new releases, screen recording video tools allow marketers to simply swap out the visual asset without recreating the entire video.

Using a single video technology for enterprise needs can serve all business use-cases – not just the AI avatar-driven internal training videos. For the customer-obsessed companies prioritizing personalized digital experiences, avatars won’t be as useful for business creators who need personalization capabilities across their customer journeys.

AI avatars need to be adopted with consideration to AI governance and other industry best practices.

As with many new forms of technology, the regulations surrounding AI adoption and usage are still being developed. Before adopting any new AI tool for business – avatars included – it’s important to work with teams who are dedicated to following ethical guidelines for building and training AI models, as well as implementing them into the business. For instance, it’s important to know that an AI tool won’t learn from one business’ proprietary information and apply the same knowledge to a competitor’s toolkit. What’s more, when creating a work product that is patterned after a particular individual at a company – like their likeness as an avatar – it’s important to consider ownership rights if that employee leaves the company.

While many of these rules are yet to be written, if you’re considering adopting new AI tools for your business, it’s wise to seek technology partners who are aware of the potential risks and understand which tools will actually drive the bottom line for your business. By asking the right questions and putting the right tools in place, marketers will be able to maximize the benefits of AI when creating video content.

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