We Just Changed the Future of Video Selling: Introducing Vidyard’s AI Avatars
April 16, 2024·5 min read
Michael Litt
AI Avatars, VIdyard's newest feature, is going to change the sales game for good. Here's why we built it, and what it can do for you.
Videos are one of the most compelling calls to action on the web. GTM Partners found companies that send video messages were spending up to 85% less effort to connect with prospects, booking up to 5x more meetings, and seeing increases in close rates as high as 25x.
But for all the good that video can do, one of the biggest sticking points in video adoption is creating high-quality videos at scale.
When I record my own videos, I sometimes need several takes to get it right. And when you’re creating videos for multiple prospects a day, all that time and energy you spend on recording stacks up fast.
“Personalization” and “scalability” have traditionally contradicted each other. So we decided to do something about it.
Meet AI Avatars
Imagine recording a video of yourself without turning on your camera.
As a kid, this kind of thing was science fiction to me. Even two years ago, it still would have been impossible.
But there have been huge strides in AI-generated image, audio, and (together) video since then. We’re putting that to work in a way that salespeople can actually use.
We just launched our newest feature, AI Avatars. It makes creating a video about as easy as writing a quick email.
To create your avatar, all you need to do is record a two-minute training video. The AI studies that video to understand the way that you look and speak.
Once your avatar is ready, you can generate videos by entering a prompt (anywhere from a single sentence to a full script). Using our text-to-video technology, the AI turns your prompt into a high-quality video that looks and sounds just like you.
Let me show you what I mean. I didn’t record any of the on-camera footage in this video. It was created entirely by AI Avatars.
So What Does AI Avatars Mean for Sellers?
It Saves You Time
Right now, sales teams are being asked to do so much more with so much less. While video messaging is effective, manually creating those videos isn’t as efficient as it could be.
This is a major gap we’re seeing in sales. We designed AI Avatars as a bridge to cross it. Imagine reducing your video messaging outreach process to just “script – generate – send”.
This saves sales teams a lot of time that they can re-invest into higher-priority work. (For example, you can send AI-generated videos for “at scale” work like prospecting, while focusing your traditionally recorded videos on discussions that need an extra human touch, like custom pricing conversations.)
It Connects with Your Workflow
I’ve found that although there are AI-generated video tools already out there, they aren’t integrated into sales workflows.
We designed AI Avatars specifically with selling in mind. And it’s baked into Vidyard’s larger suite of sales tools, like video messaging, video hosting, AI-powered automated prospecting, and digital sales rooms. This streamlines the process of actually sending your AI-generated videos to buyers.
It Makes You a Better Seller
AI Avatars solves for sales reps who are nervous about getting on camera or just too busy to give video a try. Every seller can now take advantage of all the benefits that video has to offer—even if they don’t have much experience with video creation.
I think that the best way to use AI is to support humans, not replace them entirely. So we conceptualized AI Avatars as a way to augment your sales toolkit, not substitute for real salespeople.
Buyers will always want to talk to a human being. AI Avatars just smooths the path to building that connection. It frees up your time to have more of the conversations that really count.
We’re Charting the Course to the Future
Sales is all about connection. That idea has been our north star since Vidyard’s earliest days as just a video messaging company.
This launch is the next step in our journey in combining technology (like AI) with true authenticity. AI Avatars will help salespeople build those human connections with less work and less stress than ever before.
I’m beyond excited to unleash AI Avatars into the sales world. We’ve had incredible feedback from our early testers. For example, Matt Green, CRO at Sales Assembly, calls it a “game-changer for our sales team.” He goes on to express that it gives his team more time to focus on high impact-sales activities, along with “confidence that our message is being delivered and received accurately, consistently and compellingly.”
Now that AI Avatars has gone live, I invite you to check it out for yourself. This is what the future of video selling looks like, and I can’t wait to see what you create.
Create your own true-to-you AI avatar, then generate full videos with just an AI prompt. Learn More 
