I am still the only person in New Zealand building AI video digital twins for business people. The only other company here doing anything similar is an advertising agency, and they build them for professional ad campaigns, not for business owners to use themselves. So when people ask what is really happening with this technology, I am usually the only one who can answer firsthand, not repeat what a tool company says.
Is an AI avatar ethical?
I think it is, but I recommend every client uses a label on anything that is AI, and I label every one I make myself. Skip that, and you risk real damage to the trust in your brand the moment someone finds out and nobody said so.
Not labelling an AI video is what damages the trust in your brand. A simple label is what protects it.
I also build every digital twin on the client's own account: their own email, password and credit card. I create and manage the content, but they always have access to everything, and always pay the ongoing cost themselves.
What can you use a digital twin for?
Most of my clients use theirs for social content: LinkedIn, Instagram, the everyday posts a business needs to keep showing up. Plenty use it on their website too.
Frequently asked questions is a growing use case, and there is a real reason for it beyond convenience: a message delivered by a real face and a real voice creates a connection that a written answer cannot. That is not just my opinion, a well known CEO made the same point about why he uses his own twin for company updates, more on that further down. Onboarding is another one. A CEO who cannot personally welcome every new hire can still show up, in their own voice, for that first video.
One use I did not expect, but see often now, is medical. A client of mine gets migraines from studio lighting. She built her digital twin once, and now she can put out videos and information for her clients without sitting under lights and paying for it afterward. She only had to go through the process a single time.
How easy is it to use?
It is really easy to use, provided someone who already knows what they are doing teaches you and sets it up properly. Try to figure it out alone, filming, graphics and all, and it gets difficult fast. I have seen people get put off using a digital twin entirely because of how long that took them on their own. Having someone experienced guide you through it is a genuine shortcut, not a nice-to-have.
About seventy percent of my clients go on to manage their own digital twin day to day once they are past that early stage. I am also building a tool right now, an optional add-on, that will make the handover even faster by removing the need for me to manage a client's videos during that early stretch.
How long does it take to film a digital twin?
It depends mostly on how comfortable someone is in front of a camera. Everyone is different, and I guide people through it either way. There are also a few specific rules about how you can and cannot move while filming for a digital twin, and how quickly someone picks those up affects the time too.
Here is the real breakdown, once you are ready to film:
- Voice recording: thirty minutes, enough to capture the natural rhythm and range of your voice.
- Voice upload: about fifteen minutes, done on my end.
- Voice authentication: about ten seconds, done together with you.
- Filming: one to one and a half hours, depending on how many outfits or setups you want.
Some clients film only one look, others film several outfits, and some also film a version sitting behind a desk. That footage needs to be authenticated too before it becomes a working digital twin.
Is New Zealand catching on?
New Zealand is behind. Businesses overseas started using AI video avatars for real company communication years ago, not months. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, has had his own AI twin keynoting industry events since January 2025, answering audience questions live.
"There are more people I need to communicate with than hours in the day to communicate with them."
Ron Yekutiel, CEO of the publicly listed Kaltura (Nasdaq: KLTR), on why he uses his own AI twin to send company updates.
CEOs at Zoom, Klarna and Customers Bank have all used their own AI avatar on earnings calls in the last year too.
Here, it has been slower. Part of that is simply that I am the only person doing this for business owners in New Zealand, and I run a full time photography business alongside it. But interest is starting to ignite. Enquiries are growing, and in the last two weeks alone:
Two more business owners booked in with me to build their own digital twin.