Chinese Livestreaming 'Virtual Human' Salespeople Are Outselling Their Human Counterparts

Chinese Livestreaming 'Virtual Human' Salespeople Are Outselling Their Human Counterparts

This article was produced with support from WIRED.The salesperson hawking Brother printers on Taobao works hard, like, really hard. At any time of the day, even when there’s no audience on the Chinese ecommerce platform, the same woman wearing a white shirt and black skirt is always livestreaming, boasting about the various features of different office printers. She has a phone in one hand and often checks it as if to read a sales script or moni…

Chinese ‘Virtual Human’ Salespeople Are Outperforming Their Real Human Counterparts

Built using AI technology from Baidu and DeepSeek, the virtual livestreamers sell everything from wet wipes to printers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Chinese 'Virtual Human' Salespeople Are Outperforming Their Real Human Counterparts

AI-powered salespeople are outperforming their human counterparts on Chinese e-commerce platforms, working around the clock without fatigue to sell products ranging from printers to wet wipes. Shanghai marketing firm PLTFRM has deployed 30 virtual avatars across Taobao and Pinduoduo using Baidu video models and DeepSeek language models. Brother's AI avatar generated $2,500 in printer sales within two hours and increased livestream revenue 30 per…