Could the Future of Live-Streaming be Powered by AI Hosts?

In Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang, virtual hosts introduce new products to visitors, 24 hours a day. They can interact with humans in real time and are even capable of showing realistic facial expressions. Although Hangzhou, the live-streaming hub for China does have salespeople working to promote products, with 50,000 anchors, they also have several virtual hosts within their live-streaming rooms. Technological advancements like this show that at some point in the future, virtual hosts could be used as a way to host live events, allowing people to receive the same interactive experience yet on a bigger scale.

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The Capabilities of Live Streaming with a Virtual Host 

Although the eCommerce sector is already benefiting from technological advances such as these, there are so many other sectors that stand to benefit from their adoption. The live casino sector is just one of them. Live casino games often include blackjack, poker, roulette, and baccarat, with a host usually working from a film set or an actual casino. The hosts rotate throughout the day, ensuring that the game is always accessible for people who want to join the session virtually. 

Although the human elements of casino gaming help to make the experience more authentic, smaller casino sites could use virtual hosts to expand their offerings, allowing them to target a wider market across different time zones. The virtual hosts could even be programmed to speak different languages, leading to further growth. 

Another sector that could stand to benefit from a virtual host would be the real estate sector. The ability to livestream a property tour with a virtual host would make it possible to provide a more interactive experience, on demand. Although self-tours and interactive tours are currently widely adopted across the sector, having a virtual host on hand to answer questions would elevate the experience considerably. 

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Authorizing and Leveraging Virtual Hosts

Qianxun Holdings inked an agreement last year with several companies, to promote the use of their virtual hosts. They said that the virtual hosts they use are clones of real humans, and currently, they have 100 of them working. If this can be applied on a bigger scale, especially with AI advancing at such a rapid rate, it’ll be interesting to see where we can go from there. Virtual hosts may even come with different prices, with the more interactive ones able to provide a range of functions. 

This could even spill over to the news sector, as virtual anchors deliver the latest headlining stories faster to audiences. Although we may be quite a way from experiencing advancements like this, it does go to show how much potential this kind of technology has. AI can also be integrated, so the virtual hosts are able to learn and develop themselves with every interaction, which would, again, make it easier for them to benefit a range of sectors. Although virtual hosts are being used in China right now, the potential is huge, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether this technological advancement becomes a bigger part of our ever-changing digital world.

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