A fascinating paradox is emerging in the corporate world: while businesses are quick to embrace AI to save costs, they remain sceptical of digital human avatars. These AI-powered replicas, capable of real-time communication in multiple languages, too, offer tremendous operational and cost efficiencies.
Yet, they face a wall of mistrust, often conflated with popularised media concepts like 'deepfakes' or dismissed as a complex, high-risk investment.
This article will dismantle the myths surrounding professional digital avatars and explain why the biggest misconception is the fear itself.
The perceived fear of many
Now, many might hesitate to embrace digital humans – deepfakes, data security concerns, the complexity of setting things up and integration processes – may all lead to one's reluctance.
However, when we delve deeper at the realities behind these innovations, it becomes clear that many of these worries are based on initial misconceptions, and, in many instances, are only risking businesses to overlook a golden opportunity of saving costs and improving operations.
Deepfakes, data and ethics
One of the biggest prevailing myths is that digital human avatars are directly associated with deepfakes. This is a dangerous conflation that stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of their purpose. Deepfakes are malicious forgeries created to deceive, often because of the misuse of data and security breaches.
In contrast, a professional B2B avatar is an authorised, ethical replica created with the explicit consent of the individual. For instance, McKinsey partnered with NVIDIA to create avatars for specific, high-value tasks, demonstrating that digital humans, when developed responsibly, are not a threat but a strategic asset that brings long-term ROIs.
At Guildhawk, we take full responsibility for our clients' data from the moment it is captured. Here is a glimpse of our avatar generation process, and how your data is handled throughout:
This streamlined workflow is backed by ISO:27001 certified controls that guarantee every avatar is created, stored, and delivered with the utmost protection.
Avatar filming and development are 'costly'
Another belief is that avatar development is costly, and filming process is complex. Here is why this is untrue.
While the initial investment might seem significant, it pales in comparison to the return on investment. A single digital human, if done with professionality, is highly cost efficient.
This is because it can serve as a multilingual spokesperson for all your projects - whether they are for educational, instructional, or even internal communications, it eliminates the need to constantly hire translation services, video production teams, or use up valuable in-house staff time for repetitive tasks.
Our streamlined filming process takes an average time of 30 minutes, and the resulting avatar can work 24/7 across any channel. The long-term cost savings and efficiency gains far supersede the initial price label from day one.
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Consider the ROI of a digital human: A typical corporate video requires a production team, a spokesperson, and professional translation services. For a 5-minute video translated into just five languages with subtitles, the total cost can easily exceed £20,000. In contrast, a Guildhawk multilingual digital avatar provides on-demand video creation for £1,500 (£300 per language). After the initial investment, generating each new video is a matter of minutes, not days, allowing for instant, global dissemination of your message. |
The 'uncanny valley'
The ‘uncanny valley’, coined by a Japanese robotics professor in the 1970s, describes a series of ‘eerie’ feelings evoked when encountering something that looks almost, but not entirely, human, such as certain androids or CGI characters.
In the case of digital human avatars, businesses now have a prevailing fear over their customers’ mistrusting their communication if delivered by an avatar.
However, this is a misbelief to date, because the very premise of the concept roots in the fact that people could spot the difference. The technology behind today's professional digital humans has advanced so significantly that it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between the avatar and the real person.
Here is an example of Guildhawk’s avatar, presenting our CSO, David Clarke.
Can you really, spot the difference?
The goal of these avatars is not to deceive, but to be an extension of a person's digital presence in a trustworthy, consistent, and highly scalable way. When used transparently as a digital assistant, customers appreciate the speed and efficiency of the interaction.
Check out more of our case studies here.
Entrusted by international organisations
For 25 years, Guildhawk has built its reputation on trust. As a business entrusted with the data of international organisations like the United Nations, Bloomberg, the Institute of Civil Engineers, and numerous boutique law firms and notaries, we understand that data security is unnegotiable. Our rigorous creation processes and certifications lay the foundation of our business model.
The Guildhawk avatar solution is built on a secure Microsoft Enterprise stack, ensuring that your data remains confidential and protected throughout the entire process. We believe that professional digital humans are not a futuristic gimmick but a powerful, ethical tool for more effective global communication.
Visit our digital human avatar pricing packages here.
