AI Companions
AI companions are quickly becoming the most popular friend on the block. And they have a lot more to offer than simple pop-up help wizards at the bottom of a website. As AI companions advance in sophistication, integrating dynamic video and voice response in real time, users can actually feel as if they are talking with a real person.
What Is an AI Companion?
AI companions (or AI virtual companions) are either software or applications designed to simulate human-like interaction through AI. As the market evolves, there will likely arise new AI companion software and app categories. For now, they generally fall into one of four types:
Virtual Assistants
If you’ve tried Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, or Apple’s Siri, then you have used a virtual assistant. They are based on a two-way voice response system so that all interaction is done verbally.
AI Chatbots
AI chatbots are often text-based applications that specialize in communication with users. They can be further divided into two categories:
Informational
ChatGPT is the most well-known informational AI chatbot. However, the little pop-up “Can I Help You?” windows that appear on many business and government websites are also types of informational AI chatbots.
Personal
These applications turn AI companions into actual forms of “AI companionship.” Apps like Replika, Wysa, and ReGain connect with the user’s personal needs. Replika is also an example of how the industry is evolving because it provides an avatar capable of both text and voice communication options.
Therapeutic
Instead of calling a helpline, users in search of psychological and emotional support can contact a therapeutic AI companion.
Digital Humans
The most advanced form of AI companion is digital humans. They combine interactive avatars that look, act, and speak like real people with a rapid query-response cycle. Communication with digital humans occurs through technologies like a natural user interface (see below) and D-ID Agents.
How Do AI Companions Work?
There are a number of advanced technologies that are leveraged to power the interactive and personalized experiences delivered by AI companion apps and software. Here are the most common ones:
Natural Language Processing
Natural Language Processing (NLP) uses algorithms and rules based on language to interpret and reply to a human’s textual or verbal communication. An easy way to think of NLP is that it allows people to use their normal language during interactions instead of some type of programming or input process.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning (ML) is the “brain” that connects input (using NLP, for example) to output (based on data). Due to the huge variety of potential questions and answers that can occur during any interaction, ML-powered AI companions are programmed to think for themselves, in a way. They are first instructed on how to think through sophisticated algorithms and statistical modeling. Once data is received, ML understands its research tasks and goes through data to build a response.
Data
AI companions rely on two kinds of data that is accessed by ML:
Public. AI companions will look up potential answers to user questions by rapidly scanning hundreds of online information sources to find the best response.
Private. Especially for business applications, AI companions use data supplied by a company to answer questions that are specific to the organization.
Note: Not every form of AI companion uses all technologies (for example, not all text-based chatbots use natural language processing).
Benefits of AI Companions
The growing use of AI companions is driven by a number of factors. These include:
Cost Savings
Unlike human forms of interaction, AI companions do not take salaries or office space; they do not call in sick or ask for raises. Their expense is significantly lower than a human’s, and depends on the application and the contract.
Customer Experience
AI companions deliver a consistent level of service and information, as long as the source material is of a quality origin. Plus, ML applications tend to improve over time through slight changes to algorithms and by gaining access to more data.
Speed
AI companions deliver an unprecedented level of speed when it comes to executing even complex tasks. Similarly, users don’t need to figure out how to solve a problem, as long as their query is posed properly (but which can be easily changed if they don’t get the desired results).
Learning and Development
Aside from building a knowledge base, which can be updated at any time, AI companions do not need training.
AI Companion Use Cases
Let’s look at some of the use cases for AI companions that are being applied in the real world.
Customer Service
Both virtual assistants and AI informational chatbots are used extensively for customer service. For example, an AI virtual assistant can make restaurant reservations, which, is a service both for the restaurant and the consumer. On a wider scale, chatbot technologies such as those developed by Bright Pattern use both AI and NLP to start clients off with a virtual agent, and then escalate calls to humans when necessary.
Education
Both in the classroom and out, digital humans are becoming an essential medium for institutions that want flexible options for courses. Similarly, corporations are turning to video avatars that make L&D more engaging, easier to administer, and less expensive.
Entertainment
Within the category of personal AI chatbots, there are several applications that focus exclusively on fun, such as Cleverbot (termed a “nonsense bot”) and Midjourney AI, which translates text to images.
Explainer Videos
AI Companions
