AI avatar to attend meetings on your behalf? Otter CEO Sam Liang reveals upcoming reality

An AI avatar could soon take your place at work! It would not only attend scheduled work meetings for you but even take questions and handle discussions as you do, says Otter CEO Sam Liang.

Otter is working on developing AI avatars that could take your place in meetings, says CEO Sam Liang. (Unsplash)

Have you ever been at work and attended meetings throughout the day without getting any actual work done? Such situations lead to a loss of time as well as decreased productivity. However, this problem may well be on its way to being solved and that too very soon. Otter CEO Sam Liang says an AI avatar could soon replace you in meetings and not just that, it would also take questions and handle discussions just like you do.

AI avatars in meetings

In a conversation with Business Insider India, Otter CEO Sam Liang said that he often contemplates whether all the scheduled work meetings he attends in a day are really necessary. To mitigate this, Otter is working on developing a way where an AI avatar could take your place in a virtual room and attend the meeting on your behalf. The company is already working towards that and Liang says “A prototype can be made working later this year”.

Liang said that the AI avatars replacing people in meetings should be trained on their voice data to mimic them, as well as their meeting notes. This would allow the avatars to converse and respond to questions just like the person they are representing, even in the same cadence.

Liang says the AI avatar could answer 90 percent of the questions in the meeting, and the remaining 10 percent would be sent to the actual worker with a note saying, “Hey, I don't know how to answer this question — can you help me?”

If successful, Liang says AI avatars replacing people in meetings would boost productivity and save a lot of time. Thus, AI avatars could participate in team meetings and provide status updates, meanwhile, the real workers could engage in something more productive and creative - which could make the company more money. 

However, the task of building such AI avatars that follow meeting etiquettes and have emotional cues is very challenging, Liang said, adding that “It needs to have the knowledge and emotional intelligence to participate in a productive way”.

Also, read other top stories today:

Clone games! AI tools are being used in video game studios to generate synthetic voice clones for characters, potentially replacing human actors. Some actors are skeptical, while others, like Andy Magee, see it as an opportunity for new acting experiences if fairly compensated. Check what this automation drive is all about here.

Helpline for deepfakes! The Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA) and Meta have announced that a dedicated fact-checking helpline on WhatsApp, aimed at combating deepfakes will be available for the public in March 2024. Know more here.

iPhone 16 Pro leak! The upcoming Apple iPhone may come in new titanium colour options. Know what the latest rumour says. Dive in here.

One more thing! We are now on WhatsApp channels! Follow us there so you never miss any updates from the world of technology. ‎To follow the HT Tech Channel on WhatsApp, click here to join now!