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What is an AI avatar?
AI avatars are kind of our thing. So we put together a little guide to what they are, what they aren't, and why the difference matters.
An AI avatar is a digital character powered by artificial intelligence that you can interact with through conversation. Depending on how it is created, an AI avatar can represent a real person or an entirely fictional character, and communicate through text, voice, or video. While AI avatars can be created in many different ways, Persona has built its model around direct collaboration with the real people behind its official avatars. Their knowledge, personality and perspective help shape the experience, while users always know they're interacting with AI – not the person themselves.
Personaland takes a different approach, with original fictional characters created specifically for AI conversations.
How does an AI avatar work?
At Persona, an AI avatar is designed to be more than a one-off interaction.
An AI avatar combines artificial intelligence with a visual identity, voice and defined personality to create an interactive digital character. Unlike a traditional chatbot, the experience isn't limited to typing questions into a text box. Depending on the technology, you can type, talk or have a video conversation with an AI avatar.
It can remember previous conversations, allowing you to return and continue where you left off. You can communicate through text, voice or video, in over 100 languages. Each avatar has its own knowledge, personality and way of communicating. For official AI avatars, these are shaped together with the real person behind the avatar. For Personaland characters, they are built around the character's unique personality, story and purpose.
What can you do with an AI avatar?
You can ask an athlete about training, get dinner inspiration from a chef, discuss business with an entrepreneur, ask a political candidate about their policies or let a study buddy quiz you before an exam. Or you can simply have a conversation with an original character from Personaland. AI avatars turn information into conversation.
Real-person vs. fictional AI avatars
Official AI avatars represent real people and are created together with them. Their expertise, experiences, personality and perspective help shape how the avatar communicates. Fictional AI avatars are original characters created specifically for AI interaction. They can have their own personalities, stories, expertise and worlds without representing an existing person.
Persona brings both together in one place. As we say: One app. Two worlds.
Why consent matters
When an AI avatar represents a real person, how that avatar was created matters. Persona's official AI avatars are developed in collaboration with the people they represent. We don't believe someone's identity should simply be turned into an AI experience without their involvement.
Users should also always understand when they're interacting with AI rather than the real person.
What an AI avatar is NOT — and why it matters
An AI avatar is not automatically a deepfake. Deepfakes typically aim to create synthetic media that convincingly imitates a real person. An AI avatar can be deliberately recognizable as AI. At Persona, official AI avatars are created with the knowledge, consent and active participation of the people they represent. Built with them, not from them.
An AI avatar is not just a chatbot with a face. A good AI avatar is more than a text chatbot attached to an animated person. Its knowledge, personality, voice, visual identity and way of communicating work together to create the experience.
An AI avatar is not the real person. An official Persona avatar can represent a real person, but the conversation is still with AI. We believe that distinction should always be clear to the user.
An AI avatar doesn't have to represent a real person. AI avatars can also be entirely fictional. Personaland is home to original AI characters created specifically for conversation, each with their own personality, story and purpose.
Ready to meet an AI avatar?
Discover official AI avatars created with real people and original characters from Personaland.
Download Persona and start the conversation
