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China’s live-streaming e-commerce market faces major disruption as AI-powered virtual hosts lower cost of campaigns, work round the clock
- A number of Chinese tech companies are now pushing generative artificial intelligence technology to create virtual live-streaming hosts
- This AI application underscores how the technology is bringing sweeping disruptions to certain traditional occupations in China
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China’s massive live-streaming e-commerce sector is known for peddling everything from lipsticks, food and drink to smartphones, cars and even a rocket launch service. It can easily generate tens of billions of dollars in sales overnight during major retail events like Singles’ Day.
While major Chinese cities like Shenzhen and Hangzhou are in a race to establish a global live-streaming e-commerce hub, a number of Chinese tech companies are now pushing generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create virtual live-streaming hosts capable of round-the-clock sessions, further raising the stakes in this sector.
Generative AI refers to the algorithms, such as those that power ChatGPT and similar services, which can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos.
This application for generative AI underscores how the technology is bringing sweeping disruptions to certain traditional occupations in China and the broader job market.
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Virtual hosts are rising stars of China’s online shopping platforms
Virtual hosts are rising stars of China’s online shopping platforms
New generative AI-powered virtual hosts could disrupt the jobs of more than 400,000 human live-streamers across platforms such as Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao Live, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat, ByteDance-owned Douyin and Kuaishou Technology. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
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