But thanks to large language models and text-to-speech technologies, these AI streamers can say whatever you want them to say, which means they can speak other languages too.
Last week, a new AI translation product hit social media: Los Angeles-based HeyGen launched a tool that translates video into seven different languages, clones the speaker’s voice, and lip syncs so that everything seems natural. The result (including the translation into Hindi, the only non-Western language currently offered) is surprisingly good!
With tools like this, there’s no longer a need to find local talent for live streams. “Language is actually an advantage of virtual streamers (compared to humans). Many of our customers want to do cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia. The demand is very high,” says Huang Wei, director of the virtual influencer live streaming business at Chinese AI company Xiaoice.
Xiaoice and Quantum Planet are now working together to introduce these AI streamers to Chinese customers. Their virtual streamers can speak 129 languages, including English and a few Southeast Asian languages, like Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian.
In March, they used a Thai-speaking AI streamer for the first time to sell furniture for a Chinese company and sold $2,000 worth of products in an hour. I asked a native Thai speaker to watch a clip and rate the quality of the AI; he told me that the intonation was so natural that he almost thought it must be the result of voice dubbing.
There is also an English version so you can judge for yourself, although I don’t think it lives up to the Chinese or Thai versions.
XIAOICE
Obviously, AI won’t be able to do everything a human streamer can do, including testing products in real time in response to audience questions, but it’s suitable for businesses simply looking to break into a new market and don’t spend too much money on this. the risky business. As reported by Chinese publication Huxiu, the monthly salary of a local streamer in Indonesia is almost the same as the cost of customizing an AI streamer, and in the long run, it costs much less to reuse AI than to keep a real person on board. payroll. Plus, the result is better than most people expect.
Could this mean live e-commerce will finally become popular outside of China? I would be very cautious and say that this probably won’t happen anytime soon. But I think AI could help Chinese companies expand globally by overcoming language and cultural barriers. Either way, it’s clear that synthetic media technology is evolving at an incredibly rapid pace, so it may only be a matter of time before Chinese e-commerce companies can finally take advantage of it .
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