Affiliate marketers using TikTok to promote campaigns will soon gain a new AI tool in their arsenal.
The always news-worthy social platform announced this week that they’ll be introducing generative AI avatars to their video ads. This technology will allow TikTok advertisers to quickly generate life-like AI video content of themself, a spokesperson within their company, or a third-party actor.
All of the features packaged within these AI Avatars will launch as part of TikTok Symphony. This is the brand’s all-encompassing generative AI suite that was also announced earlier in the year.
Before exploring the benefits and drawbacks of this new AI tool, let’s look at what exactly this ad tech offers.
How Will TikTok Generative AI Avatars work?
There’s actually two types of TikTok AI avatars being launched: Custom and Stock.
Custom avatars will allow advertisers to create AI-generated video featuring their own likenesses. Not only that, these avatars will also offer multi-lingual functionality. Unless you already speak multiple languages, that means that for the first time you will be able to promote video content of “yourself” to almost anyone, regardless of their own language.
Stock Avatars on the other hand utilize paid actors to create ready-made AI influencers for commercial use. You’ll be able to choose from multiple ethnic backgrounds, nationalities and 30+ languages.
Stock Avatars are perhaps a better option for someone who has no intention of using their likeness for promotion purposes.
It’s important to note that TikTok is choosing to be fully transparent about when these Avatars are being used. Regardless of which type you use, the ad will feature a “AI generated content” tag in the bottom left corner of the video. This is likely the right move considering ‘real or not?’ mistrust seems to be growing side by side along with the AI landscape.
How May TikTok Generative AI Avatars work?
AI tools continue to permeate nearly every online ad platform. Whether or not that’s a welcomed evolution will come down to a couple things: personal opinion and their effectiveness.
The idea beyond this tool is that content creators will now be able to churn out high-quality influencer content quicker and easier than ever before. The multi-lingual features also have the potential to open up new scaling opportunities for affiliates acquiring TikTok traffic.
There’s also a flip side to this coin: How will TikTok’s user base receive AI-generated avatars?
We know consumers are more likely to gravitate towards ads that feature another human. It’s a large reason why influencers have become as successful as they have promoting others’ brands. However, it’s worth asking— can AI generated avatars be considered another human, even if the models themselves are based on actual people?
Some users are likely to find AI-generated influencers a little off-putting or “creepy” even. The technology is undoubtedly remarkable, but it’s not quite perfect either. Even if it was, the ‘AI-generated’ tag will be there to remind them it’s not a real person they’re watching.
These types of questions and thoughts are likely better reserved for a larger discussion on the ethics of AI and it’s impact on digital advertising. In the meantime, if AI tools like TikTok avatars can make you a more productive and profitable affiliate, there’s no reason not to test them. You’ll ultimately have the final say on whether or not they move the needle.
TikTok’s Symphony Suite including AI-generated Avatars are currently in beta testing. They are likely to become available to the general user base in the near future.
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