Using AI Avatars in Business: Potential Benefits and Pitfalls

The latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have produced a powerful tool for enhancing a host of business processes and activities, from customer service to digital marketing to employee training. They’re called avatars, AI-generated digital clones of real human beings capable of mimicking human speech, expressions, and mannerisms.

While chatbots are typically limited to written text or explicitly programmed scripts, AI avatars can offer a more fluid, realistic dialogue, encouraging users to phrase questions as if they were speaking to a person. But unlike human beings, AI avatars can be available for interactions 24/7. According to a recent study, AI avatars are expected to become a standard technology in numerous industries by 2025.

However, the widespread use of AI avatars comes with various risks and ethical concerns. Before adopting the technology, businesses would be wise to consider how AI avatars may be received by employees and consumers in order to prevent AI avatars from doing more harm than good to their image and operations. After all, the mass adoption of AI avatars would signify a gigantic step up in the role of AI in our daily lives. The guidelines businesses establish while introducing AI avatars could have a major impact on the future of human-AI relationships.

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AI avatars in business

AI avatars lend themselves to myriad internal and external business applications. For example, large organizations are constantly onboarding new employees, but a human being isn’t always available to train them, at least not as much as the company or the employee would like. Companies are already using AI avatars to conduct training presentations, in which the technology could eventually serve as the go-to resource for HR-related questions.

Rather than having to consult an employee handbook or wait for a response to an email inquiry, an employee could get an informative answer from an AI avatar in seconds. The continual availability of AI avatars could prove particularly helpful amid the rise of remote work and companies hiring more employees in different time zones.

On the customer front, AI avatars can likewise field questions from customers at any time and add a human touch to the online customer journey. When someone enters an ecommerce platform, an AI avatar can guide them to the optimal product for their needs with the patience and expertise of a human salesperson. Along with creating a smoother, more efficient experience, the technology can collect valuable customer data with every interaction to help companies better understand the product preferences and shopping styles of consumers.

Ethical considerations

Since AI avatars represent a significant deviation from typical business operations, the process of implementing avatars isn’t without risks. New employees might react negatively if they are suddenly confronted with an AI avatar instead of a living, breathing human resources manager. How would you feel if your CEO used an AI avatar to give a company-wide speech, instead of giving the speech themself? This could erode employees’ trust in their company’s leadership.

People also might not like the idea of AI avatars assuming positions that previously belonged to human beings. Companies could come under fire for laying off large numbers of employees in exchange for AI avatars, or even if there’s a perception that the company is planning to replace workers with technology.

Another critical matter companies should keep in mind is the increasing value of privacy among consumers, as well as growing suspicions surrounding the data collection tactics of large organizations. Consumers would likely be very upset if they get the impression that a company is using the lifelike qualities of AI avatars to coax people into revealing personal data.

And once a company begins using AI avatars for data collection, who gets to see this data? How will the data be used? Without clear answers to these questions,  consumers may interpret AI avatars as puppets of data-seeking human beings hiding behind the innocent face of a robot.

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Introducing AI avatars

Businesses may be eager to implement AI avatars into their operations, but consumers and employees need time to grow accustomed. That’s why any introduction should be accompanied by robust and transparent policies for how the company will be using the technology and the data that comes from it.

A great starting point is to acknowledge that AI avatars are not intended to replace humans. AI avatars are just like an evolved version of Chat-GPT, merely meant to serve as helpful aids that are capable of making processes more efficient and improving the employee and customer experience.

Because, not only is it ethically questionable to replace human employees with robots, it’s also not worth the risk. No technology is perfect, and AI avatars can inadvertently perpetuate misinformation or display biases in their responses even after extensive use.

Businesses can address any concerns by explaining that human employees will still be making important decisions, and that includes determining what kind of data is fed into AI avatars, what kind of data the technology collects from consumers or employees, and how the humans behind AI avatars will use this data. Consumers will likely be comforted by the realization that the company is limiting interactions with AI avatars, rather than over-using the technology in a blatant attempt to collect as much personal data as possible.

Final thoughts

The future of human-AI relationships could very well depend on whether businesses are able to use AI avatars for their intended purposes while simultaneously maintaining strict guidelines regarding user consent, data collection, and the limitations of their outputs. Based on a successful rollout of AI avatars in customer service and human resources, companies should be able to achieve similar results with even more advanced forms of AI to come.

In this sense, AI avatars present a major test for businesses, not only regarding their proficiency with new technology, but also their fundamental understanding of how AI should and should not be used from a business and an ethical standpoint.

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