Your most loyal employee ever is being born right now
Avatars appearing in augmented reality are about to make their way into the corporate world. To enlighten and entertain customers when and where they need it. It’s a first step into the metaverse.
Digital Avatar
Metaverse
Augmented Reality
Did you meet Dina – our new avatar? Dina is just the beginning.
Imagine that at Kronborg Castle in Denmark, Hamlet himself will greet you at the entrance and give you a guided tour. On the way, you have an engaging conversation about anything from his deceased father to great places to dine today around the castle.
Or that Giogio Armani guides you through the store to find exactly the garments that match your style and personality.
Or that the Michelin Man greets you at the auto dealer, listen to your need and explains about the latest models until a human salesperson is available – that you might not want to talk to because of their limited knowledge compared to Mr. Michelin Man.
They will walk beside you or in front of you, but you can only see them on your phone and talk to them through your own headset. Which means that they can also walk along all the other visitors and guide them but have totally different conversations.
They are of course avatars, and you see them on your phone in augmented reality
From entertainment to engagement
This idea of using avatars for entertainment purposes is not new. But with the coming metaverse, the idea of avatars is spreading to the corporate world – not only for retail or entertainment. They can greet your customer at the train station or reception, guide them through your campus to the right meeting room, and on the way, the avatar can make conversation about the corporate history, the latest development of your stock – or simple chit chat about the weather. You can see dina by scanning the VR code, or clicking the image below on your mobile.
“Customers are impatient, expect personal service, and expect it now! And on top of that they are looking for experiences to enrichen their buying or business experience. Especially in the coming metaverse, all leading brands will have avatars representing their companies in a combination of the real and the virtual world to engage their customers,” says Michael Harboe, CEO of Virsabi.
One of the beauties of corporate avatars is that they function well across all branded platforms. The right avatar is easily recognizable across everything from your website, apps, social media, TV and print commercials, your physical office – and the coming metaverse where your avatar can guide your customers in a mix of the physical world and virtual and augmented reality.
“We’re looking into a future, where avatars will be much more than a funny character you use for commercials. We will see brands build avatars that can lead engaging conversations for optimal customer support 24/7. And where you can be 100 percent sure that the avatar will always be true to your corporate values and your tone of voice and be totally updated in new product features and your inventory,” Michael Harboe says.
What can we do today?
Have you met Dina yet? If not, do it now on your iPhone of iPad.
As you can see, you currently can’t have a conversation with Dina. She is an example of how easy it is to use augmented reality to embed avatars in your physical surroundings. You can have your own avatar like Dina today modelled in 3D and embedded in a file that user can access directly from your website.
To get an avatar that can have conversations that actually feel real, this technique must be combined with the latest developments in conversational AI.
“Many leading brands are already developing virtual agents – the next generation of chatbots – on their websites to enrich customer support. These are based on conversational AI and are becoming more and more intelligent. Combining this with an avatar that you can ‘take out’ from the website and engage with in your physical surroundings is a logical next step for the most ambitious brands and a step into the metaverse,” says Michael Harboe.
