🌅 Live AI Salespeople Are Here

SOURCE

Baidu

WHAT TO KNOW

• Luo Yonghao, one of China’s most popular e-commerce livestreamers, partnered with tech company Baidu to hold a six-hour livestream hosted by AI-powered digital versions of Yonghao and his co-host. The livestream—essentially a live infomercial—attracted more than 13 million viewers and brought in $7.65 million in sales of items like electronics, food, and beauty products.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The event is significant because the two so-called “digital humans” didn’t just mindlessly offer the items for sale, they answered live questions about products and interacted with viewers in real time. Baidu used a 97,000-word script containing information about each product and 8,300 preprogrammed digital-human actions to power the avatars, which viewers described as nearly indistinguishable from the real hosts.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The livestream e-commerce industry is estimated to be worth $900 billion in China alone, and could scale to $3.7 trillion globally by 2030. During livestreams, influencers showcase products, answer questions, and enable instant purchases, akin to home shopping channels on live television (though sometimes with a hint of gambling involved).