Recently, a post about # musician Bao Xiaobai using AI to revive his daughter # became a hot topic on Weibo.TaiwanAfter the death of his daughter, musician Bao Xiaobai missed her very much, so he used AI technology to "resurrect" his daughter in the digital world. Not only can she sing, but she can also talk. The relatives who were originally separated forever actually interacted through digital technology, which was very touching.
Source: Weibo screenshot
Coincidentally,AI Digital HumanThe anchor trend has also swept the radio and television media industry, such as CCTV.com's "Xiao C", Hunan Satellite TV's "Xiao Yang", Shandong Radio and Television's "Hai Lan", and Jinan Radio and Television Station's launch of two digital anchors "Beichen" and "Si Xuan"... Radio and television digital people present news broadcasts in a more vivid and lively form, bringing users a new viewing experience and becoming the new standard in the radio and television industry.
"Digital life" is booming, not only in emotions and broadcasting, but also in business. It is reported that some "AI digital people bloggers" have appeared on Douyin.AI beauty anchorTik Tok is making money like crazy, with monthly income up to 50,000!
No wonder, NetEase CEO Ding Lei once said, "What AI can do today is more significant than in the past decade."
AI beauty digging for gold in Douyin live broadcast
What is "AI digital human"? According to the "2023 China AI Digital Human Industry Research Report" released by iMedia Consulting, AI digital human is a digital virtual character generated using advanced artificial intelligence and simulation technology. It not only has a realistic appearance, but also has strong intelligent cognitive capabilities.
The digital human anchor is a virtual anchor based on artificial intelligence technology. It can restore the image, expression and voice of a real person through technical replication, and ultimately reach a state infinitely close to the real person, thereby replacing the real person to perform batch output of oral videos and carry out efficient live streaming sales.
Speaking ofAI Digital Anchor, the Russian beauty's rapid rise in popularity has to be mentioned. By creating a "love China" persona, she quickly rose in popularity with topics such as "living in China", "wanting to marry a Chinese man", and "thank China". She earned 40,000 in 7 days and gained 146,000 followers, breaking the record of all known AI digital people's sales accounts at the time!
This Russian blonde beauty who suddenly appeared on Chinese social media was actually a Ukrainian YouTuber named Olga Loiek whose face and voice were stolen, infringing on her rights and causing quite a bit of public controversy at the time.
For example, on the Douyin platform, an AI digital anchor with the account name "Gentle" has attracted 1.276 million fans. Compared with the Russian beauty, the videos posted by "Gentle" on Douyin seem a bit stiff, mainly composed of a simple combination of pictures and a voice with a slight accent. But through the shopping cart link below the video, it provides fans with a convenient way to buy. It is reported that the total number of products on the homepage of "Gentle" has reached 151, and the number of follow-up purchases and sales has exceeded 100,000.
Source: New List
The Douyin account named "小姨妹" has 1.106 million followers, a total of 555 items in the display window, and more than 40,000 items have been sold. According to statistics from Xindou, "小姨妹" is estimated to have brought in about 50,000 to 75,000 yuan in goods in the past 30 days.
Moreover, millions of fans are just a small matter for AI digital anchors. On the Douyin platform, the AI beauty anchor "Chocolate, Little Lemon" has 10.4841 million fans. She uses the image of a beautiful woman to output emotional chicken soup for the soul for middle-aged men, such as "Cheating a man who is sincere to you" and "What kind of personality does a man who cries often have?" Later, through daily live broadcasts, she earned more than one million yuan from gifts alone.
According to the statistics of Xinbang, in addition to "Wenrou", "Little Aunt's Sister", and "Chocolate, Little Lemon", anchors such as "Shishi Department Store", "Xiaojiu", and "Sister Li" are all suspected to be generated by AI.
For ordinary people/businessmen,
What challenges and opportunities will AI digital anchors bring?
"AI + digital human" is the general trend and has been applied in many fields. In the field of live broadcasting/short video, what challenges and opportunities will AI digital anchors bring?
According to relevant reports, there is an example of a food live broadcast account that, after using AI digital people, had an average daily transaction amount of about 163,100 yuan for live broadcasts, which is obviously better than the daily transaction amount of 151,500 yuan of the real anchor.
When the AI digital anchor can achieve the sales targets like a real anchor, or even better than a real anchor, it will present a live broadcast model with low investment, high output and long endurance.
In addition to daily live broadcasts, traditional live broadcasters also need to prepare content, debug equipment, select products, and review live broadcasts, with an average daily working time of more than 8 hours. In contrast, AI digital human broadcasters can be online 24/7, which not only reduces labor costs but also maintains efficient working conditions.
According to an article published in April 2023 by Tech Planet, the annual salary of a live anchor is about 240,000 yuan, while the customization fee for an AI anchor is 8,000 yuan, and the annual system usage fee is more than 80,000 yuan. In other words, an AI anchor can save more than 100,000 yuan a year.
The addition of digital anchors can be said to have brought the following challenges and opportunities to ordinary people/businesses:
One is the change in the relationship between demand and being demanded.If Dong Yuhui’s sales are “meaningful + value-output style”, then the AI digital anchor’s sales are the simpler “shelf display style”.
The merchant demand for traditional live broadcasts is mainly focused on the "anchor". An anchor with traffic and the ability to bring goods directly determines the survival of the entire live broadcast. Taking Dong Yuhui of Oriental Selection and the previous top live broadcaster Li Jiaqi as examples, the topics and sales were all generated around the "anchor".
But AI digital anchors are different. Digital anchors are not about personal charm, so the demand will focus mainly on "products". For example, the "gentle" AI digital anchor provides fans with a convenient way to place orders. In other words, AI digital anchors focus on user needs and meet user needs in a "007" way, so that they can stand out from the crowd of anchors.
In addition, the image and style of the digital human anchor can be customized according to product features and user needs, making it more in line with the brand image and style and attracting more consumers.
The second is to increase off-peak traffic and seek incremental growth from existing traffic.At present, the "night economy" has become a new growth point in the consumer sector, and the value of traffic at midnight and other leisure times in the live broadcast room has been revealed, becoming an important "place for digital people to use their skills". For traditional anchors, 8 hours of live broadcasting a day is already very brain-burning.
In the live broadcast rooms of many businesses, a combination of real people and digital people has begun to be used. In the prime time of the evening, the real anchors appear on the screen to sell goods, and the digital anchors take over the off-peak time of the real anchors, filling the gaps in the time period, extending the live broadcast time, and increasing the off-peak traffic, so as to obtain some conversions while keeping the cost as low as possible.
Digital avatars can continuously improve brand exposure, help live broadcast rooms significantly increase activity and monetization, and capture incremental growth from existing stock.
Third, the entry threshold is lowered, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.As mentioned above, one of the characteristics of AI digital anchors is low investment. There is no need to recruit anchors with large traffic, nor does it require huge operating expenses. At the same time, for ordinary people or businesses, it can eliminate the concerns about real people appearing on camera, or the problem of "professional anchors are difficult to train". Through digital live broadcasts, with the help of knowledge base configuration and AI capabilities, they can quickly obtain technical knowledge and directly explain to consumers, which greatly reduces the threshold for launching live broadcast business.
Just like the beautiful digital anchor mentioned above, she only needs to have a Douyin account with over a thousand fans and activate the product showcase function; then use AI tools such as Midjourney to create beautiful pictures; finally, select products through channels such as Douyin Selected Alliance, and then earn commissions by selling products through some copywriting.
Fourth, the possibility of diversification of user groups increases.In the early stages of the development of AI digital anchors, it is easier to create a sense of freshness, and it is easier to identify a diverse user group. For example, AI digital anchors such as Russian Beauty, "Gentle", and "Little Aunt Sister" target middle-aged men over 40 years old. In other words, the emergence of AI anchors has made some neglected user groups receive attention. The trial and error cost of AI is much lower than that of traditional real anchors, so the possibility of creating a diversified target group is higher, which naturally provides more possibilities for bringing goods.
Fifth, there is a crisis of trust between the virtual and the real.AI digital anchormaximumThe risk is probably a crisis of trust. For example, Russian beauties plagiarized the appearance and voice of Ukrainian Internet celebrities, which is infringing and unethical. Copyright disputes and communication ethics, false news and deep fakes, etc., if not handled properly, can easily lead to a crisis of trust.
In addition, just like online public opinion, which relies on virtual names, speech is usually arbitrary, AI digital anchors are like virtual names on Weibo. When the truth is hidden, sincerity is questionable. Therefore, how to solve the trust problem between AI digital anchors and users is also a key issue.
Source: TikTok
The report "Analysis of the Current Situation and Opportunities of China's AI Digital Human Market, 2022" shows that the scale of China's AI digital human market is showing a rapid growth trend, and is expected to reach 10.24 billion yuan by 2026.
It can be seen that the development of AI digital anchors will become more and more lively. I hope that the addition of AI can give live broadcasts more content and provide users with a better experience. Let us wait and see.