Key Points
- An AI avatar of a famous Chinese livestreamer sold over $7.6 million worth of goods, surpassing the real person’s previous sales record.
- Baidu’s AI created the clone by studying five years of the live streamer’s videos to copy his style and humor perfectly.
- The real Luo Yonghao said he was “scared” and “dazed” by how effective his digital twin was.
- The biggest challenge now is not the technology but ensuring that AI hosts comply with all advertising laws and platform rules.
Artificial intelligence just proved it can be a better salesperson than a real person. Luo Yonghao, one of China’s most famous livestreamers, used an AI-generated avatar of himself to host a sales event on Sunday, and the results were stunning. The digital clone, created by Chinese tech giant Baidu, sold a whopping 55 million yuan ($7.65 million) worth of goods in a single session.
Even more shocking, the AI avatar outsold the real Luo at a similar event held just last month. Luo himself said the technology “scared” him and left him “a bit dazed.”
So, how did it work? Baidu’s AI analyzed five years’ worth of Luo’s videos to mimic his unique style and sense of humor perfectly. The result was so good that an executive at Luo’s company called it a “DeepSeek moment”—China’s version of a “ChatGPT moment”—for the entire live-streaming industry.
This could be a significant development for the rapidly growing world of livestream e-commerce. AI avatars can slash costs for companies because they don’t need a big production team, a fancy studio, or even breaks. They can just stream 24/7.
But it’s not without challenges. The biggest hurdle now isn’t the technology but ensuring the AI hosts comply with all advertising regulations. Different platforms also have different rules regarding the hosting of virtual shows. Still, with results like these, we can expect to see a lot more AI salespeople very soon.
