What Research Says About AI Avatars in Learning

So my final take is that in using AI avatars in your videos, you really need to know your audience and know your purpose of your video. So if you are creating a video that is long, instructional screen based, it's okay to have some flexibility to try and add an AI avatar. But if you're creating a personal or sensitive or small team recording, just an update,

it's not appropriate to replace a human presenter with AI avatars. So make sure that you know your audience, know your message and act appropriately in your videos. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are and wherever you're watching. My name is Matt Pierce, Sosa Visual

Lounge and we are back with more AI research. That's right. If you listen to or watch the last episode, we talked about AI voices, AI voice generation and some of the impact there, some what people thought about them, how it can affect learning. Today we're going the next step further. We're going to be talking about AI avatars. So you might be on the fence here. You

might be like, I don't know, I don't know about AI avatars. You might be on the side of you love them because they make your work faster and easier and you can produce more content. Or you might be on the other side where you're like, no way, I will never use an AI avatar. I don't like them. Whatever it might be, there is information here that you might find valuable based on research. So let's go ahead and jump back in and introduce our

guest today, Stephanie Warnhoff. She's a market researcher for TechSmith and she has done this great research study. So Stephanie, Stephanie, welcome back to the Visual Lounge. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Matt. Yeah, good afternoon. Well, we're going to dive in because there's so much here I think that's worth covering and I think this is so everyone for context, this is part of our AI research. We'll post the link in

the context below so you can find that blog post in the PDF. So

Stephanie, as you started going part through this research and you started learning from what people were saying, particularly with AI avatars, we what surprised you most in particular about what you found. So we ran basically the same, similar type of study. We had five different videos that we showed each individual participant. One. So one was using a human avatar in picture, in picture, so small circle kind of taking up, you

know, a quarter of the screen. Then we had the human full screen which was more like half and half. Then we had an AI avatar that was also picture in Picture an AI avatar that was full screen, which is about half the screen. And then we had an audio visualizer, which is a feature that you can include in your Camtasia videos. But it is basically a still image with a bubble around it, for lack

of a better word, that shows kind of the waveforms when someone is speaking. So it's not a moving video, but it is movement and engaging for your eyes. So we had those five videos and I think the thing that surprised me the most was that on the AI avatar side that participants felt like the smaller picture in picture avatar was actually higher quality than the full screen AI avatar. I think I was thinking, okay, bigger is better. So the bigger the avatar is,

the bigger the human is, the higher quality they're going to think it is. And that was just not correct. It was not correct in terms of what they felt like for high quality. And it wasn't, it wasn't the biggest. When we talk about learning retention, which we'll get to later on, but 31% more participants felt that the smaller AI avatar was either good or excellent quality versus that full screen

AI avatar. And we did have an open ended comment section there as well that let us know that basically with that larger on screen avatar, the tiny motions that make AI avatars look, I mean, kind of fake were more noticeable. So like the facial expressions, the kind of imperfect eye contact, kind of robotic sounding voice was more noticeable because that avatar was taking up more of the screen real estate

on the screen. So although it's the most surprising thing, once I looked at the data and read through those comments, I could completely understand why people focused on felt that way. Yeah, well, we actually

have the, the snippets of those. I think we're gonna. Let's play those now since you've described them so we can see them now. If you're a podcast listener, you can't see obviously through the podcast. I recommend you go check out our YouTube channel or on the Visual Lounge. We've been starting to post the videos from YouTube so you can check it out there. Anything we should know before we watch this beside beyond what you've already said, Stephanie? I don't think so.

But just remember that each participant only saw one of these videos. This is kind of a montage of all five smashed together. So you'll notice kind of the cuts of, you know, or so seconds. It'll flip to another one. So this is not exactly what they saw, but it's one part of what they saw. We get the benefit of seeing all of them. But yeah, participants only saw a month, so. Well, let's go ahead and watch that. Google search results can be

a bit much sometimes. A simple search like what is the best sunscreen? Is full of ads and profit driven biases. Google search results can be a bit much sometimes. A simple search like what is the best sunscreen? Is full of ads and profit driven biases. Google search results can be a bit much sometimes. A simple search like what is the best sunscreen? Is full of ads and profit driven biases. Google search results can be a bit much. A simple question like what is the best sunscreen? Is

full of ads and profit driven biases. Google search results can be a bit much. A simple question like what is the best sunscreen? Is full of ads and profit driven biases. Okay, so we've got a few, few different options there. Obviously there's a human in there. There's the audio visualizer with the rings around it of a still image. Got lots to look

at. Now one thing, Stephanie, you've worked on some of our other research projects as well. And in past research we've seen like, you know, most people prefer a real human over some type of AI avatar. Yet when we actually did this test, you know, this experiment here, this research, it looks like learners actually rated AI avatars equally or as equal professional kind of level as those as the humans.

So one thing that stands out to me is that I think it was like 92% of viewers rated avatar videos as professional and they would watch another video from that creator. What's the explanation between kind of that gap of what we've seen in past research and now how people are kind of judging the quality of the overall videos that are with avatars in them? Any sense of what's changing out there for people? You know, we deal with this a lot

in research. The difference between what people either say or what they say they're going to do versus what they either actually do or their actual behavior shows. So there's research that says that the best predictor of future

behavior is actually your past behavior. Right? So if you say I'm going to go to the gym every day this year, but actually the better predictor would be how many days out of the week did you go to the gym last year is a better predictor of actually what you're going to do in the future. So we have trouble reconciling this often with research. You know, do we, do we

listen to what they say or do we watch what they do? And for this example, I'M not saying that people were incorrect when they said what they prefer, but I do want to point out that although this video viewer research is not old by any stretch, there has been huge advancements in AI between. Even when we ran that study at the end of 2024 and this study that we're sharing now at the beginning of 2026, I mean, 18 months, things have changed so much.

And so saying that they did prefer a human visual presenter at that time versus actual higher quality AI avatar presenter during the study is a little bit off. So they're not exactly comparing the AI avatars versus each other in this new study. Right. I mentioned they only saw one of these videos. They're not comparing the human to the AI, they're seeing one in isolation and basically had to

evaluate the professionalism without comparing to what everyone else was seeing. So when they actually view a video and are trying to learn from it, they look at the screen content, they look at the size of the avatar, the voice that was used, you know, the facial movements, the tone of voice, everything. So this entire package is what viewers are evaluating when they say a video is professional. And I will point out that actually in this study, almost

50% of them did not know it was an AI avatar. So the knowledge of it being an AI avatar didn't really affect their perception certainly of the professionalism or their perception of the quality. Yeah, which is, which is super interesting that people couldn't tell for whatever, for whatever reason. But you're right, the gap between 2024 and beginning here of 2026 is, it's huge for AI. And so I think, yeah, it does

make sense that maybe people's perceptions are changing. I know when you look at the quality of avatars or the quality of the technology, what it's able to produce is just a different scale, Right? Absolutely. So in the research,

one of the questions or I guess we alluded to or looked at was when to use an avatar and when not to use avatars. Because I think this is important because I think a lot of us who are in the learning and development space, not everything is as clear cut as like just use it, or maybe it's not use it. We're looking for that guidance. We're still trying

to figure these norms out of what makes sense. Are there any highlights from the research about when we should use avatars, not use avatars, any impact on maybe or perceived impact on trust when we are or are not using them? Yeah, that's a great question. We pretty much specifically did address that exact fact in the survey. So there was a question that basically said, when is it acceptable? In what style of video is it acceptable to use an

AI avatar to you? And we got pretty clear answers on that. So in our study, our viewers were most accepting of an AI avatar in an instructional or a video that heavily featured screen based content. They were least comfortable when a personal presence was needed, like a welcome video from a CEO or a team update video, for example. Now, we didn't specifically ask about trust, but you can kind of infer that if they found an AI avatar acceptable, they would be like more okay with that video

overall. So if an AI avatar is used in a video that was meant to distribute maybe personal or sensitive information, it could really turn off your viewers. So our advice here at least is to be intentional about the message of the videos, know your audience, and kind of proceed, you know, with that information in mind.

Well, if I could follow up a little bit on that. It also seems like the thing that you said earlier that 50% of people didn't know when something was an avatar also maybe plays into that kind of trust issue. If I don't know it's an avatar and all of a sudden it's delivered maybe a very serious message that's maybe inappropriate for an avatar that causes potentially real issues,

right? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's the knowledge of whether it's an AI avatar to begin with and then there's the message or the content that's trying to be delivered. So that's two separate factors there. And you're right. If they don't necessarily know it's an avatar, it can definitely seem sneaky, for lack of a better word. If you're trying to, you know, use AI as a blanket for every human

visual presenter and every style of video and your viewers. And especially if it's something like I mentioned, like a sensitive topic or a small team update that's really going to make people, you know, sour on your video because it's just not the appropriate metric. You should have spent, you know, maybe an extra several minutes or however long it would take to be a visual presenter in that video to kind of humanize that video quite a bit more.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the news articles to talk about the organization. Hopefully never. But you know, use uses the AI to avatar to lay off the workers or major changes. We don't look forward to that day. But obviously there are some impacts here. One, one of the impacts I think my audience is really interested in

is the learning aspect. Right. So You've got lots of ways you could present content for people to learn from, particularly from what you found in this research. Was there anything interesting about the type of presentation of humans versus avatars and kind of overall effectiveness in being able to perform a task? Yeah, I mean, I kind of hit on this a little bit earlier too. But in terms of the actual learning retention, the differences between four of the five

video types were very slight. Between the human full screen, human picture in picture, the avatar full screen, and the audio visualizer. We basically asked them kind of a pop quiz to answer a question that they saw in the video. And between those four types of video, there was only really a 3% difference in the amount of people that got the correct answer. So the

difference was very slight. But one of them really excelled above those, and that is the avatar picture in picture, which actually performed 13% better than any of those other four examples. So I talked about this a little bit at the beginning, but people really rated that video as higher quality. But alongside that, they got, you know, the information that they received from that video. They were able to, you know, internalize and answer a question later on in the survey more correctly with

that style of video. So like I said, they also had that video also had the highest number of people that felt it was professional, and it also had a higher learning retention. That's kind of like two stars for that style of video, for sure. Yeah. And, you know, I

can think about different research from a different era. Right. Not looking at avatars at all, but about on camera presence and, um, you know, I think one thing that's always been interesting to me that with on camera presence and again, not avatars, the research typically shows that performance doesn't change, but people have a preference for it. Right. They like having a person there or face there, but it's never. It's, you know, usually a picture in picture, not all the time on screen. So

there are some elements that I think we could probably translate. But it is interesting that they actually still perform better on the task. It's one of those ones. I'm like, Stephanie, let's do more research on that. Let's find somebody to help us do that, because that's super interesting about why that might be. And I know we don't have answers for that, but something I'm definitely, definitely curious about.

And it does lead to the question of, like, as people are leaning in here, maybe using more avatars or want to use more avatars in their work, is there advice that you can give us? Obviously, you're not an instructional designer, you're not creating training videos. But from the research that you're seeing, any advice that you could give people to help them use them maybe more strategically

or more effectively, I would say. Just overall, and I think I said this with the AI voice research as well, is if you have the flexibility and the buy in, you should try it. It's not a you should never use this or you should always use this. But my advice is to give it a try, kind of see

how it works out for you and your audience. And this study proves to me that viewers are willing to watch videos with AI avatars, accept the style, and really believe that the qual is sometimes good or even better than with a human presenter. So for most cases, using an ar, excuse me, AI avatar will not harm your video. It could even help

increase the information that your viewers retain. Now, there is an exception to that which I touched on earlier, which is if your video is personal or sensitive or something that really does need a human touch, we would not recommend using an AI avatar for that situation because the viewers have told us that that is not an acceptable use of that style. So I certainly wouldn't say replace 100% of your human presenters with AI avatars.

But like I said earlier, I'd say know your video message, know your audience, and basically proceed within reason. It's, there's a comedian out there. I won't go into the whole story, but I'll rephrase. One of the things that he would say and make it for this is like, don't go avatar ing where you don't need no avatar in. Right? Like, just don't, don't, don't go there. I,

I think there's, there's, like I mentioned at the kind of the opening, there are people who are very skeptical and maybe hesitant about avatars. And, and I love the advice, like if you have the means, you have the kind of go ahead to try. But anything specific out there for those people who are maybe saying no, I, I'm negative towards these. I don't. Why would I want to use them

that we might. I. Look, I'm not trying to shift anyone's opinion here. We're not trying to make giant waves, but I'm curious that it's a new technology, looks like it has some potential. So what would we say to those folks who are a little bit still on that, who are on that negative side? I would kind of think about why they're skeptical. I'd say is it because they have a mistrust of AI in general. There's kind of a sentiment towards that just in

culture today. Or is it because they have seen videos where the AI avatar is terrible and it turned them off from a video? So I think it's important to stay up to date on what avatars look like and how far they have advanced to look human like, as well as understanding basically what AI avatars can and cannot do. As I mentioned with the particular types of videos earlier, you cannot replace or you should not replace an AI avatar for a sensitive

or personal or, you know, small group video. But if you're making a, you know, an instructional video that primarily has a lot of screen content and you're looking for something to provide a little visual interest or help engage your viewers a little bit more, our research shows that viewers would be accepting of an AI avatar in that situation. So if that's the type of video you're creating, I think you have more leeway in terms of trying to include that in

your videos, but not on the alternative. As I mentioned, personal, sensitive, you know, human touch. Don't do it. Yeah, absolutely, Absolutely. Okay, so we've covered a lot

of research and again, it's out there on the TechSmith blog. I'm curious, any questions that let's say we're looking at doing this again? I hope we do. I hope we look at some other kind of related areas. But any questions you'd want to try to answer if and when you get a chance to do research again? Yeah, I think the first thing is I would like to try and kind of compare these videos to each other. Now I mentioned we did not do that in the study.

We had them watch one video and answer the questions. But I'd like to kind of play around with trying to have them watch maybe a human full screen and a human pip video and, you know, use that high quality voice and kind of have them rate them versus each other and kind of look at different aspects of that, whether, you know, we already talked about learning, retention, maybe engagement, you know, which one do they feel is more professional so that we can kind of evaluate one versus the other.

I'd also like to dig a little bit more deeper on engagement. We did not really talk very much about engagement in this survey at all. But that is primarily the focus of the video viewer study, which we did at the end of 2024. So probably what my dream state would be would to rerun this study but include a ton of metrics about engagement and have them, you know, do multiple Videos versus each other, human versus AI engagement, professionalism, quality, and probably be a

mega study. I don't know if my stakeholders will go for that because that seems like a really big project. But I think it would be cool to kind of mix those two and make one big study. Well, you've got my

support. Not that that means much, but I love the research that you've done. And Stephanie, I think that the thing that's really interesting to me about this is that one, we are in this new era of this new technology that it is still a very wide open, we don't know what we don't know kind of space. And I'm. And I think there's a lot to learn and lot to understand. So I'm grateful that you were willing to dive in. You and Troy

Stein really spearheaded this. And I'm just blown away that it gives me at least something, at least for now, knowing that in all of its imperfections, all the questions it doesn't answer because that's good research. It never answers all the questions. It just creates more questions. Typically. I love that it gives me at least a little bit of guidance and direction because I'll be honest, I was a little skeptical of avatars. And this has given me a little bit of that

impetus to feel like, yeah, I can, I can try doing that. I should try using those a little bit more to see what's going to be most effective, particularly on those repeatable things that change often because that's, you know, if you got me, I can't record the same video a year from now and have it look and feel the same. But an avatar, pretty sure I can get them to be the same. So. Well, Stephanie, before

we go into our closing, anything else that we missed or didn't cover that we should talk about for avatars? Probably not the only my last kind of final two things I like to think about is if you're interested in using AI avatar in video, my advice would be to do some research and stay up to date on

what you can and, you know, what's out there and what's available for you. Matt, as you mentioned, it's moving so fast that probably the research you've done on Avatars 2 months ago is now may of date. So try and immerse yourself if you want to use it. Make sure you can understand how high quality they can be or, you know, what you want to include

in your video. And my other piece of advice, as we learned from the study, is they are not applicable to all videos so make sure that you know your message and you know your audience and you choose what is appropriate for that video versus either, you know, going all in. We would not necessarily recommend that. All right, well, thank you, Stephanie. And so if people want to get involved in TechSmith research, we gave this

link last episode, but I think it's helpful to do it again. And where, where can people connect with you and TechSmith Research? Sure. So you can connect with me through my personal LinkedIn page, Stephanie Warnhoff. Or if you are interested in more research at TechSmith, you can send an email to our research email address, which is just researchexmith.com we can get you signed up for, you know, in depth interviews, for beta programs, for receiving some

surveys like this in the future. We have a lot of different research opportunities, so emailing that email address and we'll basically get you on the list, so. Perfect. Well, as we like to end most shows, Stephanie, we'd love

to hear from you on your final take. So Stephanie Warhol, what is your final take? So my final take is that in using AI avatars in your videos, you really need to know your audience and know your purpose of your video. So if you are creating a video that is long, instructional screen based, it's okay to have some flexibility to try and add an AI avatar. But if you're creating a personal or sensitive or small team recording, just an update, it's not appropriate to replace a human presenter with

AI avatars. So make sure that you know your audience, know your message and act appropriately in your videos. Perfect. Well, thank you, Stephanie. Thanks for the great research. Awesome. Thank you very much, Matt. You bet. All right everybody, if you're looking for

AI avatars, also just recommend go try TechSmith Audio Camtasia Audit. It's got so many great cool features with the app. Got the avatars, you can try those. You got the new 11 lab voices which sounds so good. Hard to believe that they are AI. I can see why people maybe said that's not AI, that's a real person. So go check those out. You can try it for free. Or if you are using Camtasia, there's a bunch of audio features that are available to you. The AI features are at the

higher level though, of course. But with that said, you know, part of this, why we bring forth this research is to help you get better, make better decisions, think through creating critically about what's going to make for good instruction, what's going to make for good video. And of course in doing that process, you got to just keep working at it. Keep trying and keep exploring and keep trying to get better every single day. And with that said, I hope you take a little time

to level up every single day. Thanks, everybody.