I created an interactive digital avatar of myself — and you can talk to it
News Source
•Sat, 26 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000
📰 What Happened
A TechCrunch reporter had an interactive digital avatar made of herself. The avatar was built by Synthesia, a video start-up from the UK that has opened an office in New York. It answers press questions about her work in her own style.
The avatar is trained on her own stories and answers, so it can reply in her voice and manner. Synthesia says the tool is meant to save busy teams time on the same questions again and again.
🔍 The Backstory
Synthesia lets companies build training videos with AI avatars. Its new Roleplay Sessions product lets employees practise, for example, a sales pitch with an avatar that responds and scores them.
The company was valued at $4 billion this year, and said last year it had passed $100 million in yearly recurring revenue. Rivals include HeyGen, D-ID and Colossyan. Digital twins are also spreading on social media, where some people use AI versions of themselves to make content. This was the first avatar Synthesia made for a journalist.
🎯 Why It Matters
Avatars that look and sound like real people make fake video harder to spot. Workers will also meet them in training and customer service.
A TechCrunch reporter had an interactive digital avatar made of herself. The avatar was built by Synthesia, a video start-up from the UK that has opened an office in New York. It answers press questions about her work in her own style.
The avatar is trained on her own stories and answers, so it can reply in her voice and manner. Synthesia says the tool is meant to save busy teams time on the same questions again and again.
Synthesia lets companies build training videos with AI avatars. Its new Roleplay Sessions product lets employees practise, for example, a sales pitch with an avatar that responds and scores them.
The company was valued at $4 billion this year, and said last year it had passed $100 million in yearly recurring revenue. Rivals include HeyGen, D-ID and Colossyan. Digital twins are also spreading on social media, where some people use AI versions of themselves to make content. This was the first avatar Synthesia made for a journalist.
Avatars that look and sound like real people make fake video harder to spot. Workers will also meet them in training and customer service.