来源：《哈佛商业评论》2023年3月4月双月刊
All companies want to give their customers richer and more engaging experiences. That’s one of the most effective ways to create and sustain competitive advantage. The challenge is to offer those experiences at scale without depersonalizing or commodifying them.
所有公司都希望为客户提供更丰富、更吸引人的体验。这是创造和保持竞争优势的最有效方法之一。我们面临的挑战是如何在不去人性化或商品化的情况下大规模地提供这些体验。
Throwing people at the problem becomes prohibitively expensive very quickly. And even if a company had enough employees to offer individual service at scale, in many situations customers prefer to interact with someone of their own gender, age, or ethnic background—an impossible staffing task. Moreover, research suggests that humans do not always produce the best results for every job. For example, Deloitte UK found that human-staffed contact centers are not only more expensive to run but often deliver a less consistent customer experience than automated channels—and they sometimes generate negative customer-service experiences.
让人去解决这个问题很快就会变得非常昂贵。而且，即使一家公司有足够多的员工提供大规模的个人服务，在许多情况下，客户更喜欢与与自己性别、年龄或种族背景相同的人互动——这是一项不可能完成的人员配置任务。此外，研究表明，人类并不总是为每一项工作都创造最佳结果。例如，德勤英国公司发现，人力呼叫中心不仅运营成本更高，而且往往比自动化渠道提供的客户体验更不一致，而且有时会产生负面的客户服务体验。
Enter the digital human. Rapid progress in computer graphics, coupled with advances in artificial intelligence, is now putting humanlike faces on chatbots and other computer-based interfaces. Digital humans mimic human communication as they offer a range of services: Companies are currently using them as sales assistants, corporate trainers, and social media influencers, for example. When deployed at scale, digital humans will radically change the business landscape. They may not be as capable or versatile as human employees, but they have clear advantages when it comes to cost, customizability, and scalability. Once “hired,” they never tire, never complain, never seek a raise, and always follow company policy.
数字人类登场了。计算机图形学的快速发展，再加上人工智能的进步，现在正把类似人类的面孔放在聊天机器人和其他基于计算机的界面上。数字人在提供一系列服务时模仿人与人之间的交流：例如，有公司目前正在使用数字人作为销售助理、企业培训师和社交媒体网红。当大规模部署时，数字人类将从根本上改变商业格局。他们可能不像人类员工那样有能力或多才多艺，但在成本、可定制性和可扩展性方面，他们有明显的优势。一旦“被录用”，他们从不厌倦，从不抱怨，从不要求加薪，并且总是遵守公司的政策。
Digital humans are already making real money for their employers. Soul Machines, an autonomous animation software company, has upwards of 50 digital humans deployed in organizations around the world. According to cofounder Mark Sagar, one client in the cosmetics industry, whose digital sales assistant recommends and models products and engages with customers about how to use them, has seen sales conversion rates increase dramatically. Visitors to the client’s websites are now four and a half times more likely to complete the entire transaction and make a purchase than they were before digital sales assistants were employed.
数字人类已经在为他们的雇主赚大钱。Soul-Machines是一家自主动画软件公司，在世界各地部署了50多个数字人。据该公司联合创始人马克•萨加尔介绍，一家化妆品行业的客户通过其数字销售助理推荐和展示产品，并与客户交流如何使用产品，销售转化率大幅提高。与使用数字销售助理之前相比，客户网站的访问者完成整个交易并进行购买的可能性增加了4.5倍。