Artificial intelligence has moved from the back office to the front of the camera. What began as a tool for automating tasks behind the scenes is now doing something far more visible: it is becoming the literal face of corporate communication. In 2025, some of the world’s most closely watched companies stopped sending executives in front of a camera and started sending their digital doubles instead. The shift is no longer a novelty or a marketing stunt — it is a genuine change in how businesses present results, train employees, and reach audiences across the world.
In this Business Report, anchor Daniel Hart examines how AI avatars for business are reshaping corporate communication, who is already using them, and what the evidence actually says about whether they work.
When the CEO is a clone: Klarna leads the way
The clearest signal that AI avatars have entered the boardroom came from Klarna. When the buy-now-pay-later fintech delivered its updated quarterly earnings in May 2025, it was an AI avatar of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski — not the man himself — that presented the highlights in the company’s official video. The clone opened the roughly 80-second presentation by admitting upfront that it was an “AI avatar, here to share Klarna’s Q1 2025 highlights.”
The illusion was convincing. The avatar had been trained on hours of archival footage of Siemiatkowski to replicate his voice, mannerisms, and speaking style. There were only subtle tells: the AI didn’t blink as often as a human would, and the voice sync was good but not perfect. For a company that has rebranded itself as an AI-first business, the choice was deliberate — Klarna used the moment to underline how deeply AI now runs through its operations.
Klarna is not alone. Sam Sidhu, CEO of Customers Bank, used an AI replica of himself to deliver the bank’s first-quarter results, telling analysts that “the prepared remarks you heard on my behalf today were delivered by my AI clone.” Zoom’s CEO has experimented with the same approach, and Meta is reportedly building a photorealistic AI avatar of Mark Zuckerberg so its tens of thousands of employees can interact with a virtual version of their boss. When executives at this level put their digital twins on camera, the rest of the corporate world takes notice.
Why companies are making the switch
The appeal comes down to three things: cost, speed, and reach. Traditional corporate video carries fixed expenses — a film crew, a studio, lighting, talent, and days or weeks of editing — regardless of whether the final clip runs one minute or ten. AI avatar platforms remove most of that overhead. A script becomes a finished, on-camera video in hours rather than weeks, and updating it is as simple as editing text and regenerating.
The reach advantage may matter even more for global businesses. With AI avatars, the same video can be published across more than 160 languages without recording a new version. A message that once required separate shoots in each market can now be produced once and localized instantly — which is why adoption is accelerating fastest in functions that communicate at scale: finance, human resources, and sales.
This is also no longer a fringe technology. Swiss bank UBS incorporated AI-powered avatars of its human financial experts in 2025, and platform providers report serving large enterprises across the Fortune 100. The technology has crossed from experiment to infrastructure.
What the evidence actually says about effectiveness
It is easy to be skeptical — does a synthetic presenter actually communicate as well as a real one? Here the research is more interesting than the marketing. A UCL research report studying 500 adult learners found no significant difference in engagement or retention between an AI avatar video and a human instructor video, with viewers completing the AI version around 20% faster. A separate peer-reviewed study at USC Marshall tested AI avatar videos against human presenters across more than 250 professionals and found identical knowledge transfer between the two groups.
The takeaway is nuanced but important: AI avatars don’t necessarily outperform humans on comprehension — they match them, while being dramatically cheaper and faster to produce, and infinitely scalable across languages. For routine, informational, script-based communication, that combination is exactly what makes them compelling.
The technology still has limits. The avatars can feel slightly stiff, and there is an “uncanny valley” effect when something looks almost — but not quite — human. They are best suited to clear, repeatable, informational content rather than moments that depend on genuine human emotion or spontaneity. Used for the right job, however, they deliver professional, consistent, on-camera communication at a scale no traditional production budget could match.
The bigger picture
What’s emerging is a new layer of corporate media. The leading platforms now offer hundreds of stock presenters and the ability to build a digital twin of a real spokesperson, all driven from a written script. Synthesia, one of the most widely used platforms, now offers more than 240 avatars across 160-plus languages and serves over a million users. Combined with rivals like D-ID and HeyGen, these tools have lowered the barrier to professional video to the point where any company — not just a fintech giant — can communicate like a broadcaster.
That is the real story behind Klarna’s AI CEO. It isn’t about replacing humans on camera as a gimmick; it’s about a fundamental drop in the cost and friction of professional video. As that barrier keeps falling, the question for most businesses is shifting from “can we afford professional video?” to “what do we want to say, and in how many languages?”
How the leading AI avatar platforms compare
For most companies, adopting AI avatars means choosing a platform rather than building one, and three names dominate the market in 2026. Synthesia, founded in London in 2017, is the enterprise standard: it reports more than 60,000 business customers and is used by over 90% of the Fortune 100, with a library of 240-plus avatars, support for 140-plus languages, and one-click translation that re-syncs an avatar’s lips to a new language. Its strength is stability and compliance — which matters most for long-form training and regulated industries.
HeyGen takes the opposite approach, optimised for speed and marketing. It supports 175-plus languages, can clone a personal avatar from a short clip in seconds, and is widely praised for more expressive, natural-looking presenters — ideal for short, high-impact clips and personalised sales outreach. D-ID and Colossyan round out the field: D-ID focuses on real-time, interactive avatars such as virtual receptionists and support kiosks, while Colossyan has carved out a niche in workplace learning.
The practical takeaway is that there is no single best tool — the right choice depends on the job. Long training modules favour Synthesia’s consistency; short marketing videos favour HeyGen’s expressiveness; interactive, real-time use cases favour D-ID. The feature gap between them has narrowed sharply, and all of them now produce business-ready video at a fraction of traditional production cost.
AI avatars for business: frequently asked questions
What are AI avatars for business?
AI avatars for business are digital, on-camera presenters generated from a written script. Instead of filming a person, a company types or pastes its text and the platform produces a realistic video of a synthetic — or cloned — presenter delivering it. They are used for training, marketing, internal communication, and even earnings updates.
Are AI avatar videos as effective as real presenters?
For informational content, the research suggests they match real presenters on comprehension and retention. Studies from UCL and USC Marshall found no significant difference in knowledge transfer, and viewers often complete the AI version faster. They are best suited to clear, repeatable, script-based messages rather than moments that depend on genuine emotion.
How much do AI avatars cost compared with traditional video?
They remove most of the fixed costs of traditional production — crew, studio, lighting, and editing time. A script becomes a finished video in hours rather than weeks, and updating it is as simple as editing text and regenerating. Entry plans on the major platforms start around $20–30 per month, with custom enterprise pricing for scale.
Which AI avatar platform is best?
It depends on the use case. Synthesia leads for enterprise training and compliance, HeyGen leads for marketing, voice cloning, and expressive short videos, and D-ID suits real-time interactive avatars. Most businesses choose the platform whose strengths match their primary workflow.
Can an AI avatar speak multiple languages?
Yes. Leading platforms support 140–175+ languages with automatic lip-sync, so the same video can be localised into dozens of languages without re-recording — one of the main reasons adoption is fastest in global sales, HR, and finance communication.
Related: see how AI agents in business are automating work that goes beyond the camera.
