Focus on the BIG picture.
Sunday, Aug 17, 2025
Outside the box.
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
AI-powered digital humans are emerging in entertainment, service and commerce, with applications spanning virtual influencers, animated performers and interactive avatars.
Virtual personalities—from DJs to brand ambassadors—are advancing rapidly through AI and animation.
DJ Dex, a fully virtual digital human developed by a UK start-up, performs via Unreal Engine, motion capture and generative AI.
She has appeared at Digital Fashion Weeks in New York, Paris and Milan, modeled luxury brands’ collections and signed a record deal with a Stockholm music label, while serving as a showcase for interactive digital avatars designed for real-time conversations.
Technology firms are broadening applications.
Sum Vivas, based in Liverpool, is developing digital humans for roles such as website avatars offering product information and multilingual concierge agents at airports.
Another company, Anam, recently raised nine million dollars in seed funding to create lifelike digital avatars for sectors including education, healthcare and customer support, and now counts two thousand clients.
Other ventures are deploying digital humans in retail, entertainment and customer service.
Platforms such as UneeQ power digital service agents in multiple languages with human-like emotional responses, while NTT DATA presented an interactive digital human at a major sporting event to engage fans.
UNITH, a publicly traded firm, is preparing a self-service platform giving users the ability to deploy AI-driven digital humans on websites.
Research projects are also exploring broader social interaction.
A survey in Dubai found that cybernetic avatars—robots or digital avatars—received strong public acceptance for guiding and informing roles in high-traffic spaces such as shopping malls and airports.
Responses varied according to appearance, with realistic robotic avatars favoured more than cartoon versions.
The emergence of digital humans aligns with broader developments in AI and robotics.
In China, the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games illustrated physical AI advances, even as technical limitations remained evident.
Meanwhile, voice-based AI agents are increasing in customer service, with investment growing from three hundred fifteen million dollars in twenty-twenty-two to two point one billion dollars in twenty-twenty-four.
Digital humans are part of this expansion of AI interfaces, bringing visual and conversational realism to virtual interaction.
DJ Dex, a fully virtual digital human developed by a UK start-up, performs via Unreal Engine, motion capture and generative AI.
She has appeared at Digital Fashion Weeks in New York, Paris and Milan, modeled luxury brands’ collections and signed a record deal with a Stockholm music label, while serving as a showcase for interactive digital avatars designed for real-time conversations.
Technology firms are broadening applications.
Sum Vivas, based in Liverpool, is developing digital humans for roles such as website avatars offering product information and multilingual concierge agents at airports.
Another company, Anam, recently raised nine million dollars in seed funding to create lifelike digital avatars for sectors including education, healthcare and customer support, and now counts two thousand clients.
Other ventures are deploying digital humans in retail, entertainment and customer service.
Platforms such as UneeQ power digital service agents in multiple languages with human-like emotional responses, while NTT DATA presented an interactive digital human at a major sporting event to engage fans.
UNITH, a publicly traded firm, is preparing a self-service platform giving users the ability to deploy AI-driven digital humans on websites.
Research projects are also exploring broader social interaction.
A survey in Dubai found that cybernetic avatars—robots or digital avatars—received strong public acceptance for guiding and informing roles in high-traffic spaces such as shopping malls and airports.
Responses varied according to appearance, with realistic robotic avatars favoured more than cartoon versions.
The emergence of digital humans aligns with broader developments in AI and robotics.
In China, the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games illustrated physical AI advances, even as technical limitations remained evident.
Meanwhile, voice-based AI agents are increasing in customer service, with investment growing from three hundred fifteen million dollars in twenty-twenty-two to two point one billion dollars in twenty-twenty-four.
Digital humans are part of this expansion of AI interfaces, bringing visual and conversational realism to virtual interaction.
