Back to the (AI) Future

Meet Your Digital Twin With Natalie Monbiot

Can you trust your digital twin?

Natalie Monbiot explains how AI avatars multiply the connections that one person can have with other people. This ultimately creates the potential for businesses to stand out from competitors, expand their reach, and generate revenue.

Natalie, head of strategy and a founding member of Hour One, advises startups, boards, and media companies. She’s also a frequent keynote speaker and contributor to publications like WSJ and The Information.

In her TEDx Talk, she discusses AI Emma and the virtual human economy, showing how real people can benefit from putting their digital selves to work.

I spoke to Natalie to better understand how enterprises are adopting AI avatars today and where the technology is headed. 

Watch our full conversation and learn more about AI avatars here:

Let’s clarify – are we really here with you or AI Nat?

Natalie: Well, that’s actually a very good question. In a video conference, we assume that the other people are real because they listen and respond in real time. But what we see on the screen is actually just the avatar of a real person, not the biological person themselves. But yes, on the other end of this call and screen, I am the biological me for now.

What’s a ‘digital twin’ or an ‘AI Avatar’? How is it different from a ‘deep fake’?

Natalie: A digital twin is interchangeable with an AI avatar at this point. It’s your digital representation that behaves autonomously with permission. Today, you can program your digital twin to communicate on your behalf, even without you there.

You raise an important question – how’s that different from deep fake?

This goes back to 5 years ago with Hour One. We’re one of the first companies to take this AI technology, which only existed as a deep fake. We set out to commercialize this technology, putting some ethical boundaries and legal parameters around its use.

A deep fake is the non-permission, non-consensual use of someone’s digital likeness. You can look at the same technology and apply ethical and legal principles to it so that only those whose likeness have permission to create and animate that digital replica.

That’s the difference between what we do and what a deep fake is.

What commercial use cases for AI Avatars are emerging today?

Natalie: Companies might already be doing this. There’s a statistic flying around that over 50% of Fortune 100 companies are using avatars in their company for internal training content. I’m not certain that’s accurate, but training is a pervasive use case.

It’s the one where the market fits this technology product already. And it happened quite early on because what it disrupts isn’t any human engagement, but PDFs and static communication. That’s the main use case.

The quality and lifelikeness of avatars have been increasing over the last few years. Cultural and social norms have become more accepting of AI since ChatGPT blew up, so AI has become more normalized. 

We are also starting to see AI avatars present companies in a customer-facing way. Some people might be familiar with Reid AI, the co-founder of LinkedIn’s AI avatar making its rounds on the web. Reid Hoffman has been using it as a thought leadership tool, creating new ways to engage with followers more creatively.

“Vision of the Virtual Human Economy” – what practical use cases do you predict we’ll see in 15 years?

Natalie: In 15 years, I have a prediction that we’ll be living in a virtual human economy in which we will each have our AI clones. These are visual representations or digital incarnations of our body, work, and expertise that we can package and license so that other people can access and pay us for them.

Thanks to AI, we’ll have this expanded notion of ourselves and our own human capital. And with all the infrastructure correctly set up so that the humans behind the AI representations are actually the beneficiaries, then we can have an expanded gig economy.

We can start making money in a way where we’re not required to be doing the work in person, scaling and augmenting ourselves in ways that can truly benefit us. 

Beyond training, what could a virtual human do for our executive clients today?

Natalie: AI Lauren could have the client interaction and thought work that many of us are paid to do, provided that the model was trained on your own content – meaning, we have the right data to execute 1-on-1 conversations with clients.

The models need to form interesting, relevant, and valuable enough content for people to actually sustain these conversations. It’s going to take a minute to get there, but we will be able to offload certain responsibilities to our AI selves.

What are some ideas I could suggest to my clients about where they could start to adapt AI technology in ways that feel safe to them?

Natalie: The great thing about AI avatars is that you can fully control the output. A really safe and useful application is just the ability for your AI clone to speak languages that you don’t speak. A lot of the literal dollar value is about to be added to help sales forces this way.

For example, you can tailor your AI avatar to learn Japanese and communicate with customers, building a cultural bridge. The dollar value goes to the company that can do this before its competitors. It has a strong advantage if it tries to acquire new contracts or win over an entrenched competitor.

What We Can Learn From Natalie Monbiot:

1. AI avatars are different from deep fakes. While they use the same AI technology, they leverage a data model informed and approved by a real person. There are ethical and legal parameters that surround AI avatars before they start behaving as you.
   

2. AI scales human influence. Many people see AI as the dumbing down of humans in a way that begs the question – if AI can do the work, then what are humans for? But rather than replacing humans completely, AI avatars are filling new areas of service, like moving static content to video, translations, personalizations, etc.
   

3. AI works best with human ingenuity. Humans bring creativity and cultural sensitivity to AI. This technology pressures us to come up with ideas that are more unique, differentiated, powerful, and useful. Think carefully about how you should leverage this technology and pair it with the insight that only comes with human expertise – that’s the winning combination.

My High-Tech Secret to Health and Productivity

Want to get more done at work? Easy, watch your health and eat better.

According to a Population Health Management Study, unhealthy lifestyle choices lead to productivity dips at work because you tend to feel more fatigued and distracted. 

But everyone knows that good habits can be difficult to stick with. What helped me track my health better is using an Oura Ring.

I like the Oura Ring because it tracks a lot of health data without being overly noticeable. 

One feature is the Resilience measurement, which reflects how well my body recovers from stress. That score shifts depending on my sleep, movement, and stress levels over time. If I’m sleeping well and staying active, my Resilience increases. But if I’m stressed or not sleeping enough, it decreases. 

Here’s a picture taken on my single low-stress day of the year:

It’s a helpful way to monitor my overall balance without needing to focus on it constantly.

Purchase yours here for a discount.

Remember, the path to success is paved with continuous learning and embracing fresh perspectives.

Let's stay connected, share ideas, and elevate your consulting business.

Stay curious, friends.

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