Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

D.B.A.

Degree Granting Department

Business

Major Professor

Robert Hammond, DBA

Co-Major Professor

Joann Quinn, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Alan Hevner, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Paul Spector, Ph.D.

Keywords

artificial intelligence, business-to-business sales, customer experience, photo-realistic avatars, synthetic media, content personalization

Abstract

Hyper-realistic avatars (HRAs), a form of synthetic media, are custom-created digital embodiments of a human, created by capturing and combining that person’s video and vocal likeness. This is the first known study of the efficacy of videos delivered by hyper-realistic avatars as a communication channel in comparison to videos delivered by their human counterparts. An experiment testing how information retention, engagement, and trust vary between viewers of videos delivered by a real human, videos delivered by the HRA representing that same human, and videos delivered by the HRA that discloses to viewers that it is a hyper-realistic avatar is presented. Testing on both subjective survey and objective biometric data from participants (n = 290) reveals that there is no statistically significant difference in information retention, engagement or trust between respondents who watched the real human versus the HRA of the real human. The only statistically significant (p = .003) difference found is in information retention between the HRA-delivered video (M = 4.065) and the video delivered by the HRA that disclosed it was a hyper-realistic avatar (M = 3.593). As the first research comparing this communication medium, this study lays the foundation for future studies of HRAs in numerous contexts, and directions for future research are suggested.

Download

Share

COinS