Avatars, mascots and twins: the world of synthetic people

He carries a rucksack on his back and works as a guide. But Leon, the new yeti created using artificial intelligence to guide managers on their journey towards understanding innovative technologies, does not exist. He was invented by Infosys, the Indian consulting and digital services giant with a turnover exceeding 20 billion dollars and 328,000 employees. So one of the world’s largest technology firms has chosen a mascot designed by AI, whilst also launching ‘Ask Leon’, an AI chatbot that acts as a point of contact for professionals. The *Wall Street Journal* highlighted this a few days ago, identifying Leon as one of the key players in a wider phenomenon: the return of mascots in contemporary marketing, even in sectors such as technology and consultancy, which have historically been far removed from this form of marketing. Alongside Infosys’s yeti, there is already Niles for Crocs, a crocodile designed to give the brand of footwear a recognisable figure even on international markets. Then there’s Stan for Black&Decker, featuring a toolbox that comes to life, speaks and acts as a point of contact for customers. And there’s even Drippy, an AI mascot devised by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection: an anthropomorphic drop of water engages with citizens on drinking water and resource conservation through a new form of public communication. This is the paradox of synthetic marketing: the more machines become human, the more companies need to humanise machines.

But the landscape of synthetic identities is even more complex now that generative artificial intelligence has taken a leap forward – it no longer concerns just text, images and videos. Because now it involves people. Virtual influencers, avatars, digital humans, synthetic brand ambassadors and even artificial consumers are entering the supply chain. Identities are emerging that are perfectly controllable, multilingual and always available. Synthetic people are moving from the experimental stage to a marketing strategy, generating value. Lu do Magalu, now recognised as the world’s most-followed non-human influencer and who has become the virtual face of the Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza, has generated $2.5 million in revenue from sponsored content, according to estimates published by ‘Axios’. All that glitters is not gold. Gartner highlights the issue of synthetic identities, with half of consumers stating they would prefer to buy from brands that do not use AI in content aimed at the public. According to YouGov, out of the 17 countries analysed, only 23 per cent say they would be willing to engage with content presented by an AI-generated influencer. However, the figures vary greatly across markets: India leads the way at 55 per cent, whilst in Italia we are less inclined, with a stable figure of 16 per cent.

But the bar is being raised even further, moving from synthetic influencers to synthetic consumers: LLMs make it possible to create genuine digital twins of consumers, which can be used for concept testing and market research. Processes that traditionally take months and cost tens of thousands of dollars can now be completed in a matter of days, enabling companies to carry out a greater number of tests and experiments. This is according to researchers at the MIT Sloan Management Review. In Italia, Be Closer is already working with over a thousand ‘synthetic personas’ and has launched the campaign ‘Based on true stories from marketers’ to reaffirm its commitment to real data. ‘All this does not stem from a spur-of-the-moment idea but is the modelling of our wealth of data. The correct question is not how much a single synthetic persona resembles a real individual, but what strategic decision it is intended to support. A synthetic panel reduces response times from six weeks to twenty-four hours. It does not replace traditional market research, but refines and defines its scope before the client spends their production budget. The real-world data then feeds back into the system and recalibrates the models. ‘It is this continuous loop of returning to reality that keeps the system honest, not blind faith in the machine,’ says Giancarlo Sampietro, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Be Closer. So whilst AI has so far been used to generate content, it is now taking the place of those who test products and services.

It is a seemingly dystopian world where synthetic agents become part of the creative and decision-making process. ‘We have chosen to place AI behind creativity, rather than in front of it, using vertical agency teams, trained on the metrics and culture of each individual boutique: they understand the business objectives, the communication history and the effectiveness of past campaigns. They act as true co-pilots to our creatives: they propose alternatives, challenge weak insights and instantly recall what has already worked and what hasn’t. The real value lies not in producing yet another piece of content in less time, but in multiplying the number of hypotheses we can explore before deciding which one to proceed with. But the empathetic relationship with real people continues to deliver significantly better results”, explains Sampietro. The future holds the prospect of marketing in which the brand’s agent communicates directly with the consumer’s agent within a B2AI framework. A sort of brand identity designed for the machines that will help us make choices on our behalf. ‘Today, the most effective applications are those in which the technological infrastructure is completely invisible to the outside world. But the brand is returning to its original function: to be the unique answer that a person chooses to voice. This is why we work on two integrated levels: optimisation for generative GEO responses, which we consider to be just as fundamental as traditional SEO, and the building of brand memory in the collective imagination—the only lever that no algorithm will ever be able to replace in the consumer’s mind. ‘Whilst being found by machines will become more expensive and competitive with each passing year, being sought out by people remains a company’s only real strategic defence,’ concludes Sampietro.