AI-Generated Population Is Ready to Work

Artificial intelligence is making it possible for companies to replace humans in tasks that range from modelling sweaters to participating in clinical trials. AI systems can take in data on a person’s individual characteristics—such as appearance, shopping preferences and health profile—then predict how they would look in an item of clothing, how they would answer a question or be affected by a disease. This AI content, sometimes referred to as a person’s digital twin, is already being used for a variety of tasks. Los Angeles-based start-up AI Fashion uses photos of real models to generate completely new AI images of them modelling various pieces of clothing for fashion campaigns and e[1]commerce sites. Another start up, Brox AI, created digital versions of 27,000 individuals, with information about their brand preferences and shopping habits, that allows companies to ask the AI focus[1]group-style questions. And San Francisco-based Unlearn is using AI to generate digital twins of people based on their health data to predict how disease might progress over time for those individuals— aiming to make clinical trials more efficient and effective. While the technology raises questions over the future of the human workforce, these companies say humans continue to play a vital role, and can be compensated for their willingness to share their data for the creation of AI twins. For businesses, the digital people are a way to scale faster and save on costs. Consulting firm Gartner refers to the technology as “digital humans”—and estimates that in five to 10 years’ companies might even have digital twins for every single one of their customers. It is still early and there are a number of challenges. “Consumer perceptions and attitudes may form a backlash against brands if terminology, data and use cases aren’t handled with care,” said Gartner analyst Marty Resnick. Nevertheless, enterprises are starting to invest in the idea of using AI to digitize and monetize some aspects of humanness. Women’s clothier Anne Klein is testing technology from AI Fashion that generates fashion shoots based on photos of real-life models. AI Fashion said it uses a mix of proprietary technology and industry-leading open-source models. “Consumers are looking for higher personalization, while also being able to see the product in a wide variety of different environments. AI enables us to do this at scale,” said Doug Weiss, senior vice president of digital, e[1]commerce and AI for Anne Klein parent company WHP Global. Weiss said the tool won’t necessarily completely replace photoshoots, but “this enables us to build out the broad as[1]sets our shoppers are looking for when they shop,” he said. A number of start-ups offer services that use AI to generate images based on a brand’s clothing line. In some cases, models are completely AI-generated, a practice that has led to criticism for potentially putting real models out of work. AI Fashion tries to differentiate itself by putting a real human model in the center of the process, said co-founder and Chief Executive Daniel Citron, a former creative lead at Google who founded the company in 2020 with its chief technology officer, John Chirikjian. Model pay rates vary on a variety of factors including the brand, number of images and popularity of the model, and models can turn down any campaigns they don’t feel comfortable representing, AI Fashion said. Weiss said more personalization and cost efficiencies are benefits he expects to see from using the tool, but added that it is too early to estimate exactly how much money could be saved. Brox AI’s focus group tool gives companies the chance to get answers to questions without the expensive month-long process of setting up a real focus group. The tool is powered by digital twins of 27,000 real individuals, said Brox co-founder and CEO Hamish Brocklebank. “We know where they shop, what they buy, what they like to buy. And we’ve predominantly collected a lot of this information through inter[1]viewing them at great length,” Brocklebank said. Based on interview data, Brox’s proprietary AI algorithm can generate answers to questions like whether a female in her 30s would pay a 10% increase on a streaming service subscription. Participants were paid anywhere from $20 to $150 depending on how many interviews they participated in, he said.