Wen|Wang Xin
Editor|asked
Artificial intelligence, sweeping the internet in 2023.
First of all, ChatGPT caused heated discussions on the whole network, and various well-known technology companies and large manufacturers invested in it, and AI concept stocks took off. The unexpected level of intelligence of digital technology has also caused a lot of concern, Buffett believes that ChatGPT is very remarkable but not sure whether it is beneficial to humans, Musk, who has always acted boldly, signed an open letter calling for "a pause in training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least 6 months."
The wave has not stopped, and the AI generation of various pictures and beauties has swept platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu, which once triggered the discussion of "Internet celebrities and models may lose their jobs", and some people used AI beauties as bloggers to attract tens of thousands of fans and enter the live broadcast room to start monetizing goods.
Use AI beauties as bloggers and anchors
These beautiful anchors, who are not much different from real people, maintain a correct posture, greet the delivery with a mechanical voice, introduce various products in the live broadcast room, and from time to time interact with the question "Is the anchor a real person" in the barrage: "No, the anchor is an AI virtual person." ”
"With these AI anchors, you can even do 24-hour live broadcasting." A company that sells AI anchors told E-commerce Online that they can achieve "one-to-one replicating" between AI anchors and real people, reply to problems in the live broadcast room in real time, and achieve "the sun does not set" in the live broadcast room with monetization.
Many businesses that sell related services have put up the banner of "new vents after ChatGPT" and "90% of real anchors are going to lose their jobs", selling software and services with a minimum of 299 yuan a month and a maximum of 50,000 yuan a year.
On the one hand, the media reported that e-commerce anchors ushered in a collective salary cut, and on the other hand, companies selling related services said that AI anchors can achieve 24-hour non-stop live broadcasting, bringing new increments and possibilities to merchants.
The doubt of "whether artificial intelligence will replace real people" appeared in the minds of live broadcast e-commerce practitioners, but carefully observing these AI anchors, the picture is not exquisite, the speech is mechanical, and "the same skin bag says almost the same introduction."
AI anchors can not replace real anchors, whether businesses can achieve a leap in sales through AI anchors is still unknown, but this batch of anchors with ChatGPT and AI concepts has made many "shovel sellers" make a lot of money.
AI anchor, 24-hour "sun never sets"
In the live broadcast room at two o'clock in the morning, the beautiful anchor is still online.
When the user enters the live broadcast room, the beautiful anchor will make some reactions, read the user's name in a slightly mechanical voice to welcome it, and then introduce the product: "It's very discounted, click on the link to take a look." ”
The anchor's makeup is exquisite, in addition to the green screen cutout effect and slightly stiff action expressions, there is no difference between the hairstyle and clothing and the real person, and the live broadcast room will not indicate the identity of the anchor, only if the user is curious to ask "Is the anchor a real person", the beautiful anchor will answer: "The anchor is an AI anchor." ”
This batch of AI anchors mainly appear in Douyin's local life group buying live broadcast room, selling all kinds of food, wine and tourism group buying, and occasionally appear in department store slicing advertisements to explain goods, but the application scenario is relatively single, most of them are simply explaining, and there are not many categories involved, in addition to local life group buying, that is, department stores and FMCG.
Virtual streamers are not a new concept anymore.
AYAYI, which became popular in Xiaohongshu two years ago, and Liu Yexi, who swept Douyin, can be regarded as domestic phenomenal virtual anchors, and countless large manufacturers and brands have also invested in them, attracting fans with virtual anchors with different styles. But this batch of virtual anchors rarely appear in the live broadcast room, and more often bring goods in the form of graphics and short videos.
Now the AI anchor has directly walked into the live broadcast room, and the live broadcast technique has also evolved, and will actively avoid the sensitive words of the platform - in the Douyin live broadcast room, the AI anchor said that "the baby who comes in can pay attention to the live broadcast room" and "now it is only 9.9 meters (yuan)"; In the Kuaishou live broadcast room, the AI anchor has a little more old iron temperament, saying that "welcome the new treasures in the live broadcast room, pay attention to it and don't get lost".
AI anchor, "foreigners work for you"
The rendering effect is slightly rough, but there are many merchants who use it. A merchant selling related services said that there are dozens of live streaming merchants and accounts that use their company's technology, and they have also used AI technology in overseas scenarios to start broadcasting on TikTok, which can be broadcast in English.
The reporter contacted a company that sells AI anchor systems, which said that they can achieve "24-hour no broadcasting" and raise the efficiency of the live broadcast room to the highest, "the single day single live broadcast room PV (views) brought by AI anchors, the lowest is a few hundred, the highest is 780,000, and the daily average is more than 10,000, which is definitely much better than not broadcasting."
But further observation will find that this batch of AI anchors is more like a background board in practical applications, and the merchants who use AI anchors are also similar to goods masters, and do not form their own supply chain, but only play a role in product selection. AI anchors will respond to questions in the live broadcast room and introduce some products and offers, but the words are always a few words over and over, consumers want to better understand issues such as verification, logistics and after-sales, and also need to communicate with human customer service.
AI "shovel sellers" all over the network
Searching for "AI anchor" on platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Channels and some e-commerce platforms can find hundreds of accounts selling related services, and some service providers have also opened live broadcast rooms, directly selling services under the banner of "AI" and "ChatGPT".
The service purchase process is not complicated, as long as you consult the relevant merchants to determine the demand and image of the AI anchor, and the company gives a recommendation plan to place an order to buy, you can get the AI anchor.
Selling "AI anchors" on Channels and Little Red Book
Different merchants correspond to different models and prices, some merchants package products for sale through the software of the shell manufacturer, and some merchants help users build AI anchors through self-developed software.
A personal service provider told "E-commerce Online" that his software only needs 299 yuan, and then bluntly said that the software is a shell of Tencent's digital human software, and the interactive function of the live broadcast room was also realized two or three years ago, "Tencent costs tens of thousands a month, but I sell a full set for 299 yuan, and then the software requires you to open a membership can also help you solve it."
Such AI anchors are more like new bottles of old wine, selling things from two years ago to users with popular AI concepts and entering the live broadcast room to bring goods.
Some studios and companies say that they have research and development capabilities and provide more diversified services: in addition to providing different AI anchor templates, giving away equipment such as consoles and live screens and a year's after-sales service, they will also teach live broadcast skills, provide agency operation services, and maintain and update the software every month.
Some companies can also provide customized services, as long as users provide a few minutes of video and photos, they can reproduce an AI anchor with a "90% similarity", and generate an AI anchor action template that can be used in the live broadcast room, and combined with the intelligent voice interaction system, it can be customized and put into use in 3-7 days.
Many platforms are selling related products
These so-called independent research and development companies will also be higher in price: if you do not need to customize the anchor image, the fee is 2500-3500 yuan a month, and the annual subscription will be cheaper, only 5980-9980 yuan. If you want to customize, you will need to add an additional fee of 20,000-35,000 yuan per year. A company also said that it provides a full set of AI anchor programs, equipment and agency operation services, charging 6,000 yuan for non-customized anchors and 30,000 yuan for customization, while requiring users to obtain 50% of live broadcast revenue.
Many service providers are selling agency operation services at the same time, "AI anchors can be done by many companies, and any live broadcast room can be used, but whether it can be done is not necessarily, it depends on whether it will be operated." "Some service providers themselves also do live broadcast business, AI anchors are more like a tool, used to leverage cooperation with merchants, agency operation is a more profitable business in the future." You look at our account, in the past, an account had a daily GMV (platform turnover) of more than 50,000 yuan, but now we use AI anchors to fill the gap where real anchors are not there, and the GMV of an account can reach 6-70,000 yuan a day."
When introducing products, service providers will also compare AI anchors with real anchors to promote users to place orders: "A live broadcast team of 3-4 people costs 20,000 yuan a month, and it costs 240,000 yuan a year, and an AI anchor can top a team, up to 3-40,000 yuan a year, which can save 200,000 yuan."
In the live broadcast room and account homepage of these companies, many background data are also displayed as successful cases, AI anchors talk in the live broadcast room, and the background data of the account is also rising.
AI anchor, can't be Li Jiaqi
Many related service providers call AI anchors "new outlets for live broadcasting in 2023", and when promoting them, they also bring the artificial intelligence "ChatGPT" and various AI-generated beauties that were popular all over the network.
But observing many live broadcast rooms, you will find that this group of AI anchors and artificial intelligence is not much related.
In the live broadcast room, the actions of the AI anchor are actually played in a loop, and the live broadcast speech is also a pre-set voice, except that it will immediately capture the questions in the live broadcast room and answer with the speech, which does not reflect too much "intelligence". When customizing the image of the anchor, the relevant studios and companies require the video provided by the customer to have prescribed actions, and the customized anchor finished product also uses the circular action in the video.
In addition to rubbing the popularity of AI artificial intelligence, some companies will also bring gimmicks when introducing related services, calling AI anchors "workers who "will not get tired and do not resign", and are "live broadcast future trends, will replace ordinary anchors".
But at present, it seems that it is difficult for AI anchors to replace real anchors.
On the one hand, watching the live broadcast room using AI anchors, you can find that most of them do local life group buying and bringing goods, and some do department stores and FMCG products, these categories are basically standard products, and relevant service providers also recommend local life group buying and FMCG merchants to use, "the standard product speech is relatively unified, and the effect of bringing goods is good".
In the field of non-standard products such as clothing and beauty, AI anchors are not popular. The delivery of standard products only needs to explain the function of the product, but in the field of non-standard products, the audience wants to understand the sense of use of the product in the live broadcast room, see the intuitive effect, and listen to the anchor display and explain the details, which cannot be achieved by AI anchors.
On the other hand, the characters and IP capabilities created by real anchors cannot be replaced by AI.
Li Jiaqi is "lipstick brother", Dong Yuhui is "knowledge with goods", TVB is "old Hong Kong star sentiment with goods", but also created a variety of different styles of goods, Li Jiaqi's sentence "all girls" is enough to mobilize the emotions of the live broadcast room, let countless women buy, buy, buy, buy, Dong Yuhui told a variety of knowledge made many netizens ridicule that they feel that they are in class, TVB's Cantonese plus Hong Kong drama characteristics, but also bring the audience directly back to childhood.
AI anchor + live broadcast form behind the scenes
But now the AI anchor has no difference in personality, just an auxiliary tool in the live broadcast room, which cannot become an IP, and it is difficult to mobilize the audience's emotions. A merchant who has purchased AI anchor services said that because AI anchor interaction is very rigid, the user retention effect is not good, and Douyin officials will not give too much organic traffic.
Some businesses that use AI anchors also use real people combined with AI anchors in order to interact with each other, and real-time interactive explanations behind the scenes of real people, AI anchors appear lip-sync, but in this way, labor costs will rise.
From the perspective of the platform, AI anchors also have certain risks.
Douyin's official short video said that on-hook recording will be judged to be a violation
Although many service providers said that AI anchors will not be restricted and banned, they said every day that the platform has strict management of recording and unmanned live broadcasts, and will limit or deduct points for accounts, and these AI anchors are to some extent packaged recordings and unmanned live broadcasts, "Although there are no regulations for AI anchor live broadcasts, AI anchors may manage such live broadcasts after they appear frequently."
The supervision of the platform does not know when it will come, and it is still unknown whether merchants can reduce costs and increase efficiency through AI anchors, but many "shovel sellers" who sell services are the ones who make steady profits in the popularity of AI anchors.
The cover image is from Xiaohongshu blogger cyberAngel_