How To Build An Interactive AI Avatar (And 4 Ideas To Use It in L&D)

Author

Ross Stevenson
May 27th, 2025

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 TODAY’S THOUGHTS ☠️

Hey there 👋,

I’ve struggled to get to the bottom of both my inbox and DM’s this week.

There’s certainly not enough tea in the world for this task, and I don’t quite trust AI summaries to fill in the gaps for me.

During this most audacious of tasks, I noticed a trend.

A similar message that kept coming up - “How did you build that interactive AI avatar?” It seems that little experiment video I shared on LinkedIn has caught a lot of interest.

So today, we’ll explore how to create your own interactive avatar and put it to the test as part of the evolving learning experience powered by modern tech.

Get your tea or beverage of choice ready, 🍵.

We've got lots to discuss!

P.S. Your app might clip this edition due to size, if so, read the full edition in all its glory in your browser.

 IN THIS DROP 📔

  • Build an interactive AI avatar for L&D experiments

  • Why you must challenge the Human Chain of Thought in modern learning

  • 3 ideas to drive real value as an L&D team across the rest of 2025

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 THE BIG THOUGHT 👀

How To Build An Interactive AI Avatar (And 4 Ideas To Use It in L&D)

AI + Human = Win 🏆

Ok, we’re getting super practical today.

Too much content talks about ‘what could be’, but you know I like to take a different approach.

I’ve always been a show, not just tell type of guy.

If you want to shape the future of the learning industry and expand your career, you gotta be down in the action. This is the kinda stuff you’ll never see at a conference.

Today, you’ll learn how to create your own interactive avatar and put it to the test as part of the evolving learning experience with tech.

Now doesn’t that sound fancy…

Before we begin, let’s get clear on why we’re doing this.

A few weeks back, I shared this video on LinkedIn. I honestly thought most people knew about this tech. It’s been around for at least a year.

Turns out I was wrong.

A lot of people freaked out. They either thought I was some sort of dark wizard or the whole thing was staged with a scripted avatar. Neither is true, and you’ll see for yourself today.

To get the most out of today’s edition, you’ll need to do a bit of reading, watching and doing.

Lucky for you, I’ve structured this all in the window you’re currently staring at.

How ChatGPT sees the difference

The different levels of AI Avatars

Comments on my LinkedIn post tell me I need to provide some context on the current state of AI avatar technology.

So, let’s break down the difference between an interactive avatar and a standard one.

Let’s start with ‘what you know’…

Your standard AI Avatars.

The ones you’ve probably seen everywhere the past few years. You know the score with these.

You pick a character, a voice and give it a script to voice over your terrible elearning project…oh, sorry, I misspoke…I meant your content 😈.

Anyway, this is what you probably use and know.

In L&D, I’ve often seen Avatars used as a way to elevate bad practices.

Too many turn that already crap course/powerpoint/pdf into a droning avatar and think that’s ‘job done’. In reality, its just crap in → crap out.

That’s not the fault of the tech - it’s ours.

→ We are falling to the limits of our ideas.

Like with any product, it has good use cases if designed well.

Now, Interactive AI Avatars are the opposite of this.

There are no scripts.

Yes, you still pick a character and a voice, or clone yourself if you’re one of the vain among us, but that’s where the similarities stop.

An interactive avatar runs on two sources:

  • A Large Language Model (LLM)

  • A knowledge base paired with system instructions

If you’ve created custom GPTs or built any general AI assistants, you’ll be familiar with this back-end setup.

Essentially, it’s an LLM with a face and voice.

The difference is that you refine its focus by providing sources in a knowledge base that it uses to interact with users.

Now we’ve got that out of the way.

You can check out the full “How to build an interactive AI avatar with HeyGen” video tutorial (skip to 3:31 for the tutorial only) and find my ideas on impactful ways to experiment with this tech in L&D below.

Where can Interactive AI avatars deliver impact?

While this all seems very cool, it doesn’t mean much without a performance application.

Here are a few ways to experiment with this:

👋 The Friendly Onboarding Assistant

I’ve previously covered how AI assistants can be a real help in closing the gap between different departments for new starters.

Starting a new job is such a nerve-wrecking thing.

There are lots of questions to ask and stuff to know, and quality human time isn’t always available. I see an interactive avatar as the next level of a text-based onboarding assistant.

Imagine your new starter opens their laptop and is greeted by a branded avatar that says, “Hey, let’s help you get settled.”

They can ask anything. 

The questions we might miss but are oh so important when you just land, stuff like where the printers are, who to speak to in ‘x’ team and how to set up MFA (that one can be hell!).

They don’t have to wait for days until HR gets back to them or feel like they’re annoying their manager. They get a real-time response and a friendly smile (if you instruct it to smile, of course).

This avatar doesn’t replace onboarding, it enhances the experience.

The ROI:

  • New hires get the answers they want fast.

  • Everyone hears the same message (no more “Steve forgot to tell me how to book holiday”).

  • You finally get data on what people actually want to know in their first few weeks.

🚨 Compliance & Policy Coach

Let’s be honest: nobody remembers anything from their annual compliance training.

I’ve been in this game for 17 years, and no one has proved me wrong yet.

You know this problem, too. People need to know what to do in the moment, not six months before, in a test for which their colleague probably sent them a Slack message with the answers.

So, what if they could talk to an avatar trained specifically on that data, who can guide them to not get sacked by sending that email?

This is modern-day performance support.

They can ask questions like: “Is this process breaking data rules?” or “Can I share this externally?” And instead of a vague response, the avatar references real policies.

The ROI:

  • More useful than clicking through 78 slides of death by PowerPoint once a year

  • It’s there when they actually need it

  • You can track every question, every response. That’ll please the audit committee

🛒 The Shop Floor Assistant

I get a lot of questions about “How do people on the retail frontline leverage AI?” - I think this is one idea to try.

I used to work in the global L&D team for one of the world’s largest retailers, so I’m familiar with the challenges of performance support for in-store colleagues.

They don’t have the same access to devices and apps as their head office counterparts.

We can change that with both online and offline AI solutions. A lot of things can go wrong on a shop floor, and no one wants to be working on a battlefield in the bread aisle.

An interactive avatar could work with teams to deploy new store layouts, get answers to questions about the latest products and new promotions.

Yes, you’d need to think about hardware access for in-store teams, and today’s avatar solution might not be the best option for this right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to achieve.

The ROI:

  • Real-time answers for colleagues and customers direct from live data

  • Better understand the questions and challenges in-store colleagues face in their day to day.

💬 The ‘Refresh My Skills’ Coach

Another evolution of a current text-based solution.

Creating a fine-tuned skills coach with an LLM is pretty easy. Now we can give it a face and voice to round out the experience.

Often, we all want a safe space to practice, and that’s not always accessible with other humans.

AI can provide a challenging sandbox to refresh and sharpen key skills at the point of need. Imagine you need to have a difficult conversation with a team member this afternoon. It’s been a while, you’re a little rusty and a bit nervous.

This is totally normal.

You want to get a bit of structure and practice in before the meeting, but finding another human to help with that within the time constraints is not easy. So, we could call upon an interactive avatar to:

  • Refresh our understanding of frameworks and models for difficult conversations

  • Roleplay the conversation to test your skills

  • Craft an action plan to prepare you for the conversation and create a meaningful experience for all participants.

The ROI:

  • Critical support with sensitive tasks when you need it most

  • An accessible and safe space to practice skills 24/7

Source: HeyGen

Final thoughts

I cannot stress enough that this isn’t about replacing people.

Avatar companies love to use that tagline of “replace yourself” but you don’t need to shape it this way.

It’s about designing support where it matters most in those micro-moments that often get missed. Interactive avatars won’t solve every problem, but when used intelligently, they can lift the load, enhance performance, and free humans to do more of the stuff only we can do.

You don’t need to, and shouldn’t, transform everything into an avatar experience because it’s easy. This is the same type of thinking which led us to the current mess of “Everything is a course”.

Just pick the one use case that solves a real problem in your org and test it.

Then build what’s most impactful.

→ If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it wherever you hang out online, tag me in and share your thoughts.

Till next time, you stay classy, learning friend!

PS… If you’re enjoying the newsletter, will you take 4 seconds to forward this edition to a friend? It goes a long way in helping me grow the newsletter (and cut through our industry BS with actionable insights).

And one more thing, I’d love your input on how to make the newsletter even more useful for you!

So please leave a comment with:

  1. Ideas you’d like covered in future editions

  2. Your biggest takeaway from this edition

I read & reply to every single one of them!

 👀 ICYMI (In case you missed it!)

  1. Google created a prototype AI Tutor with LearnLM (its AI model trained on learning science). This is an experiment of an experiment from Google’s project Astra, which aims to create one universal AI assistant that does it all under their umbrella. You can check out the AI Tutor prototype here and find my review of the LearnLM AI model on the STT YouTube channel.

  2. How I see the 4 levels of transformation with AI for L&D over the next 6 months. A few people confused last week’s visual as a maturity framework, when in fact it’s more of a blueprint. This is the curve of change we’re all part of. Whether you realise that or not is another question.

  3. The case for modern learning experiences to challenge our human chain of thought. What if something we assess machines by is the very thing we miss in the products we build for humans? Pull on that string to reframe the value of L&D in the era of AI.

 VIDEO THOUGHTS 💾

3 Ideas To Drive Value in Your L&D Team Across 2025

Soooo we’re nearly 6 months into the year.

That feels like a perfect time to revisit this video I shared in January.

Based on data from readers (yes, you!), clients and the general market landscape, I pitch my flag on 3 activities that can help most L&D teams drive real value for their business in 2025.

My question for you is: How are you doing so far?

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Here’s a few ways I can help:

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