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Will Retail Be Full of AI CEOs and AI CEO Avatars?
JD.com, one of China’s largest retailers, recently showcased a virtual avatar of its founder, Richard Liu, during a livestream event. This virtual version of Liu made a brief appearance, lasting around 40 minutes, in an 11-hour promotional event for World Book Day. While the virtual Liu was only a small part of the event, his AI CEO presence indicates JD’s interest in using avatars to generate interest and excitement.
As JD prepares for China’s upcoming 618 shopping festival in June, the company is exploring the use of lifelike digital personalities to attract customers. This strategy aims to lower operational costs for merchants and compete with other platforms that use human-hosted livestreams.
During the recent livestream, Liu’s avatar introduced five book sets, including China’s classical masterpieces. The virtual Liu explained his personal reasons for recommending these books and highlighted their competitive prices on JD’s platform. Viewers could purchase these book sets at less than half of the regular price through links displayed on the screen.
Following the debut of Liu’s virtual avatar during the livestream last week, JD has received numerous inquiries from merchants and brands interested in collaborating. Some CEOs are also considering using avatars for their own livestream shows.
In a previous announcement, JD revealed an RMB 1 billion investment to support content creators in short videos and livestreaming. This investment aims to boost content creation on JD’s platform and enhance the overall shopping experience for customers.
As JD continues to innovate and experiment with new strategies, the use of virtual avatars in livestreaming could become a significant trend in the e-commerce industry. The upcoming 618 shopping festival will be a key event to watch as JD implements these new approaches to attract more customers and drive sales.
Can AI Replace a Human CEO?
The landscape of corporate leadership is undergoing a seismic shift with the integration of AI CEOs and their avatars. As technology advances, the question arises: Can AI take on the role of a CEO?
NetDragon Websoft, a China-based company, made headlines last year by appointing Tang Yu, an AI-powered virtual robot, as its CEO. Following this move, the company’s stock soared, pushing its valuation above $1 billion. Similarly, a Polish drinks company appointed Mika, another AI humanoid robot, to spearhead critical projects and drive growth.
Despite these groundbreaking appointments, the success of AI CEOs remains to be seen. Are these instances outliers or indicative of a broader trend? A recent edX poll found that nearly half of the CEOs surveyed believe that AI could automate or replace most aspects of their role. While AI excels at data analysis and strategic decision-making, it falls short in replicating the “soft skills” crucial for effective leadership, such as critical thinking, creativity, and empathy.
According to McKinsey, AI can enhance key components of strategy formulation but cannot fully automate strategic development. Anant Agarwal, the founder of edX, emphasizes that AI’s technical automation prowess doesn’t extend to the essential human qualities that define successful CEOs.
Despite these limitations, the collaboration between AI and human leadership shows promise. Leaders can leverage AI’s analytical capabilities for data-driven decision-making, while AI benefits from human oversight and emotional intelligence. A Korn Ferry study revealed that a third of senior leaders are already exploring ways to integrate AI to enhance productivity and efficiency.
However, the path to mainstream adoption of AI CEOs is fraught with challenges. Ethical concerns, regulatory ambiguity, and societal mistrust pose significant barriers. Clear regulations governing AI in leadership roles are lacking, and societal acceptance may be hindered by fears of job loss and privacy issues.
While AI’s integration into CEO roles signifies a shift toward digital-age leadership, the human touch remains indispensable. The fusion of AI and human expertise has the potential to redefine corporate governance, with AI acting as a strategic partner in the C-suite. As the boundaries between technology and leadership blur, organizations must navigate this evolving landscape to harness the full potential of AI in shaping the future of business.
Discussion Questions
Is the use of virtual avatars a transformative strategy for the future of e-commerce, or merely a temporary gimmick?
How might this innovation impact consumer trust and brand authenticity?
How can companies address the ethical, regulatory, and societal challenges of AI deployment in executive roles?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
Mark Self
President and CEO, Vector Textiles
No, the future will not be full of this. This is an interesting gimmick by JD, probably used because it helps showcase their AI technology. AI does not and will not replace the need for human interaction, especially from leaders within businesses. Of course, I am sure some companies will be tempted to use more AI avatars for things like customer service, but they will likely run up against ethical and executional issues. None of this is to say AI is not important; I just believe it will enhance rather than replace most human roles.
Well said Neil! In some cases AI is being over-hyped like the metaverse was a few years ago. How many companies are successfully using the metaverse and how many stores has it displaced? AI has a lot of applications to replace predictable actions of employees like customer service and creative writing and design, however, I don’t see it replacing highly strategic roles or those that require soft skills.
Ha! I remember the metaverse hype. You’re right: despite all the chatter, very few did anything significant. I think AI has a lot more applications, but people take it to extremes.
It has been revealed in several surveys that nearly half of CEOs, retail or otherwise, believe AI will replace “most” or “all” of their jobs. Although I am not yet ready to say which specific aspects of the CEO role should be replaced by technology, answers will evolve more rapidly than we might expect. However, breath easy, because AI will never replace the role of CEO.
Artificial intelligence will transform CEO jobs instead of displacing them, allowing them to focus on more meaningful tasks, like creating new revenue, developing better management teams, improving strategic relationships, enhancing partnerships, assuring profitability, etc.
Certainly, AI will have an impact on retail CEOs. It will probably be necessary for them to reorganize and restructure their companies, and possibly downsize, as a result of the ways in which technology has transformed the way people work. Downsizing sounds like a bad thing, but when executed properly, downsizing in one area often leads to growth in another.
There is no need for CEOs to become prompt engineers. For some, however, sharpening AI skills may be a matter of survival. – Db
Why stop at just an avatar? Why not a robot presence? (Reminds me of the William Gibson novel, The Peripheral.)
Who needs a human CEO anyway? Why not just assign an AI and save the inflated salary, stock options and country club membership? Good for shareholder value. At many companies nobody would know the difference.
Using AI to create virtual avatars as a sales gimmick or to demonstrate technology is one thing, but the idea of relying on AI to replace senior leadership altogether is utterly farfetched. The reliance on AI will only increase as we move forward, for all roles including senior leadership, but at least for the foreseeable human judgement is still required.
AI will play a role in many ways going forward, as an enhancement to some positions and as a replacement for others (but not likely leadership positions like this scenario). The jury is still out on how this will all transpire, but given the fast growth of AI tech, this is on a sooner rather than later growth trajectory.
Could AI do better than some CEO’s? Probably (I have one in mind in particular, tho not a retailer – yes that one). But the similar argument has long been made that chimps could do the job too, and guess what? The ones who actually make the decision will always argue their guy/gal is the exception.
Today’s question seems to be an all-or-nothing question. “Do you believe virtual avatars will become a staple in e-commerce livestreaming?” I have no doubt avatars will be used in e-commerce. But they will be used creatively when the product calls for it. I hate to say cartoon characters of old, but cartoon characters of old.
Gee, a CEO avatar might do a more honest job on those quarterly earnings calls.
The avatar will never utter anything against the wishes of the Party and will always present the aesthetic ideal (or cartoonish exaggeration as needed). It’ll never need to take an extended vacation after a disappointing earnings report, a child attending an unauthorized gathering in the States, or a frank reply to a question at an investors’ meeting. So we know the tech will have a firm representation in one major economy.
I guess it’s fair game to ask if there is any job up and down the corporate ladder that is not at some level of risk of being replaced by AI. I think of it in terms of “thinking” and “doing”. At the lower levels of the ladder I can see AI stepping in and offering new efficiencies. But going up the ladder there is less doing and more thinking. And I hope the top of the ladder stays very human as the lower levels have tapped AI for the different levels of contribution it can make. I’m certainly not looking forward to corporate life as a bad sequel to a Will Smith movie.
It’s a gimmick but when is the Buffett avatar going live? And weren’t monkeys the first to fly man made crafts into space? Maybe Craig is onto something! Bring back the chimps!
The key is that I don’t want to watch an avatar of Buffett so the only way to get me to do it is to not tell me it’s an avatar. That will definitely destroy trust and authenticity – think Milli Vanilli or Britney Spears (or Google it). So, to address the ethical challenges, don’t lie – easier said than done these days.
Technology when properly leveraged is a phenomenal partner. CEOs, managers and everyone else should be leveraging technology to become more proficient at what they do. After all, a CEO with a calculator was more productive when they were introduced than one with an abacus (or a slide rule). The question is: what is humanity’s secret sauce? As technology becomes more advanced and cheaper, it will continue to replace humans. What is the one thing that tech can’t do and is there enough of that for the 8 billion (and growing) to still earn a living?
This is a one-shot gimmick only significant because they used it before anyone else.
As to the long term questions about AI and CEOs, AI enthusiasts today continue to misunderstand human intelligence – a far more wonderful and unusual reality than any LLM. Only human intelligence uniquely processes and understands the complex world of retail.
Clearly a sharp PR stunt — but currently there aren’t cogent scenarios where a truly AI CEO makes any sense. However, AI COO is another story….
I see this as value added but not a replacement. Each company operates differently and I don’t see Ai making decisions on human issues, issues with emotional intelligence and the like. Numbers are quantifiable and any one can talk to them so that could be a benefit.
This is stupid. I mean, the CEO is so busy that he/she has to send their avatar in? You are not that important of an audience, that is what this “trend” signals.
Look for this to die a relatively fast, quiet death.
Such a good point. What message does it send to customers and employees? “The CEO is too busy to appear in person or by video link, so he sent an avatar instead”.
No