TikTok introduces AI-powered avatars and dubbing tools to enhance and localize brand advertisements on its platform.
TikTok has announced a groundbreaking addition to its Symphony ad suite: AI-powered digital avatars. This new feature, revealed on June 17, could revolutionize the way brands create and localize advertisements on the platform.
AI-Driven Avatars and Dubbing
TikTok’s latest tools include AI-generated “stock avatars” and a sophisticated AI dubbing feature. These innovations allow brands to produce and customize content with unprecedented ease. The stock avatars come from video footage of real actors, specifically licensed for commercial use. Brands can select from a variety of AI-generated voices and accents to read scripts, which are then seamlessly dubbed onto the avatars.
The platform’s text-to-speech technology supports dubbing in ten different languages and dialects, including English, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. This tool not only translates the input language but also dubs it into the target language, aiming to match the mouth movements and expressions of the avatars. Additionally, AI can generate scripts, further simplifying the content creation process.
These new features are part of TikTok’s broader AI-backed ad suite, which has been progressively rolled out since early 2024. The suite includes a virtual assistant that scans the platform for trending content and can generate both ideas and scripts for ads. Currently, the AI avatars and dubbing tools are in beta and accessible to a limited number of users via a waitlist.
In addition to stock avatars, TikTok is testing custom avatars that replicate the likeness of content creators and brand spokespeople. These custom avatars boast the same multilingual capabilities as their stock counterparts, providing a versatile tool for influencers and brands alike. TikTok’s creator community is currently piloting these custom avatars to explore their potential.
Transparency and Quality Challenges
To ensure transparency, TikTok will automatically label all AI-generated videos. Demonstrations have shown a small box in the video’s corner, indicating the content’s AI origin. Despite the advancements, these AI clones are not flawless. The demonstrations revealed occasional mismatches between mouth movements and spoken words, a phenomenon often referred to as the “uncanny valley.”
TikTok’s venture into AI-powered avatars follows a similar move by Meta, which introduced an AI chatbot in September 2023 featuring likenesses of celebrities like Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and Tom Brady. These AI clones now manage interactions on their respective Facebook and Instagram accounts, highlighting a growing trend in the integration of AI in social media marketing.
Lastly, TikTok’s new AI-driven tools signal a significant shift in digital advertising, offering brands innovative ways to engage with global audiences. As these features continue to develop and expand, they promise to enhance the creative possibilities for advertisers on the platform.