What are AI Avatars (and Should Businesses Be Using Them?)

Imagine receiving a video email where the sender says upfront: "Hey, this isn't actually me talking. It's my AI avatar." Would you feel tricked? Or would you be intrigued?

When it comes to using AI for marketing and sales, there's a massive debate happening right now around AI avatars. 

Some business owners think they're too robotic, too impersonal, and honestly, a little creepy. But others (including major companies like HeyGen and Vidyard) are calling them the ultimate cheat code for scaling revenue.

So let's answer the big question: What exactly is an AI avatar, and should your business actually be using one?

At IMPACT, everything we teach in the Endless Customers System™ is built around one goal: helping you become the most known and trusted brand in your market. That’s why trust is a big deal for us, and it’s exactly how we want to approach AI avatars too.

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First, Let's Address the Elephant in the Room

The biggest fear we hear is that using an avatar makes your brand look robotic and inauthentic. That's a valid concern. So here's the rule of thumb you need to adopt immediately:

Should you use AI avatars to replace deep, meaningful relationships? Absolutely not.

Don't use an avatar to apologize to an upset client. Don't use one to close a million-dollar deal. You show up in person for those moments.

But can you use them to replace the repetitive text emails flooding your prospects' inboxes? Absolutely.

The Mindset Shift: What's Actually "More Human"?

Here's where most people get it wrong. We tend to think that typing a text email is safe and professional, while using AI is somehow fake or manipulative.

But flip that thinking for a second.

What's actually less human?

• Option A: Sending a cold, black-and-white text email with a generic Google Calendar link

• Option B: Sending a video where your prospect sees your face, hears your voice, and feels your enthusiasm

For certain situations, you need to stop thinking about this as "human vs. AI" and start thinking about it as "text vs. video." If video is the better play for the situation, you have a strong case to use an avatar.

How AI Avatars Actually Work

According to HeyGen, an AI avatar is a digital human (like an online twin) that can talk, express emotion, and move its lips perfectly in sync with any script you give it.

To create an AI avatar, you record yourself on video one time. That's it. From that point forward, you never have to record again. You simply type in a script, and the AI generates a video of "you" saying it.

(Source: Vidyard)

Pretty cool, right?

But the even cooler part is what happens when you apply this to your sales process.

Three Use Cases Making Businesses Money Right Now

We've identified countless ways businesses are using AI avatars effectively, and we even have an on-demand webinar covering five specific workflows in detail. But for now, let's focus on three use cases that are delivering real results.

Use Case #1: The No-Show Killer

If you run a business, you know the pain of the no-show. You book a sales call with a prospect, you prepare for it, and then... they ghost you. 

It's incredibly frustrating.

Vidyard ran a test to see if they could solve this problem. Instead of sending a boring automated email confirmation, they sent an automated AI avatar video. The video simply said, "Hey, looking forward to meeting you on Thursday. Here's what we're going to cover."

The result? In just one month, their no-show rate dropped from 13% down to 9%.

Why does this work? Because it's psychologically harder to ghost a person whose face you just saw than it is to ignore a calendar link.

Use Case #2: Personalized Outreach at Scale

Imagine you have a list of a thousand potential clients. You know that sending a personalized video to each one would skyrocket your response rates, but you obviously don't have time to record a thousand videos.

With an avatar, you can upload a spreadsheet with their names and companies, and the AI will generate a thousand unique videos where you greet each person by name.

We've heard from companies using this exact strategy who saved their sales reps 40 hours of work per month while generating over $100,000 in new pipeline.

Now you can finally do the important things that didn't scale, at scale.

Use Case #3: Assignment Selling Made Effortless

If you're familiar with Endless Customers, you know that Assignment Selling is the strategy of giving prospects homework before a sales call, like watching a product video or reviewing a pricing guide. This way, your actual meeting is focused on details, not educating the basics.

Here's where AI avatars get really powerful: With tools like Vidyard, you can use dynamic variables within your script. Think of it like Mad Libs, but for video.

You type your script and leave placeholders for things like the type of content (is it this video or that article?) and the specific time commitment required to review it. Vidyard then reads the data from your CRM and fills in those blanks automatically.

(Image: Vidyard)

So the avatar knows to say, "Hey, please read this pricing guide before our call," or "Please watch this product video." The instructions are personal, specific, and perfectly delivered every single time.

If you want to see even more ways to use AI avatars for your business, check out our on-demand webinar, 5 Ways to Start Using AI Avatars in Your Sales & Marketing Today. In this exclusive joint webinar from IMPACT and Vidyard, you’ll discover 5 practical, proven ways to start using AI avatars today to attract more of the right buyers, accelerate the sales process, and deliver the personalized experiences customers now expect.

The Verdict: When to Use AI Avatars (and When Not To)

Here's our bottom line:

Don't use avatars to opt out of moments that require genuine human connection. Those high-stakes, relationship-building moments deserve the real you.

But do use them to scale your presence. Putting your face and voice in front of more people more often is an incredibly powerful way to grow your business. AI avatars make that possible in ways that were never feasible before.

How are you and your organization feeling as the AI revolution gets underway? Not sure where to get started and how to do this the right way across your organization?

That’s exactly what we do with the Endless Customers Coaching & Training Program. We work with businesses to help them improve their sales and marketing. An important part of that is knowing how and when to use AI to improve your outcomes.