One step closer to letting AI avatars attend meetings for you. As part of a broader AI expansion, Zoom announced it will soon let you create an AI avatar of yourself that you can use to send brief messages to your team.  In practice, you will first record yourself. Then, the company’s artificial intelligence will use this video to generate an avatar that looks – and even sounds – like you. From there, you can write the message you want your digital avatar to speak and have it communicate it instead of you.

The initiative is part of a major objective of the CEO, Eric Yuan: to have his “digital twin” participate in meetings he doesn’t need to be in while he focuses on other activities. This will increase productivity at work, he believes.

Even so, AI avatars raise concerns about unauthorized deepfakes that could, in a way, hack companies. According to The Verge, Zoom is considering the possibility of deepfakes. Smita Hashim, Zoom’s chief product officer, said that the company is “handling it really carefully with advanced authentication, with watermarking technology, and strict usage policies.”

The global AI Avatar market was valued at US$5.9 billion in 2023. It is estimated to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 30% between 2024 and 2032.

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Source: The Verge | Zoom | Global Market Insights