LIVE FROM AWS SUMMIT 2024: Artur Schneider (pictured), senior cloud consultant at Deutsche Telekom’s IT business T-Systems, claimed AI avatars can redefine customer interactions across industries as he provided details on its AWS-powered 3D icon for enterprises.

Schneider noted generative AI is “more than just a hype” and it is key to what he called “metahuman” or avatar technologies, which enable companies to have realistic interactions with their users.

The expert referred to a study by Accenture which revealed 70 per cent of businesses globally are exploring AR/VR technology, with avatars a key element. Meanwhile, 60 per cent of online users now prefer to have customisable 3D icons for their gaming, shopping and networking experiences.

“Today, the line between virtual and physical world is blurred,” Schneider said, adding the global virtual avatar market size is projected to reach $528 billion by 2030.

T-Systems runs its own avatar or “metahuman” solution based on AWS’ stack of services, spanning AI tools to security and innovation support. According to Schneider, its AWS avatar is capable of generating “natural, human-like interaction” and is trained on product-specific data tailored to its clients’ business needs. This enables the avatar to provide contextual answers.

Thanks to AWS, Schneider said conversational data with customers guarantees security. “When ChatGPT was launched almost two years ago, everyone was happy to have this intelligent service,” he said. “But after a while, they started to think, ‘wait, what’s going to happen with the data?’”, which was used to further train and improve the model.

The executive said its AWS-powered avatar solution boasts “secure infrastructure”, and users can access the technology via browsers.