Nvidia-backed Synthesia has unveiled a new AI avatar that is more expressive and realistic than any avatar you have ever seen. Designed to aid business communication, this AI avatar can create a custom avatar that resembles yourself or your CEO in just a few minutes.

This is Synthesia's fourth generation avatar and is the result of the new EXPRESS-1 language model, which uses similar diffusion technology found in Midjourney, Adobe Firefly (image creation), and Runway (video creation).

This improved basic model allows avatars to exhibit human-like emotions, such as smiling, expressing sadness, and generally appearing more involved with the material.

You can't create your own avatar and use it to scare your friends; Synthesia's focus is very much on the business market, trying to replace boring PowerPoint presentations with something more animated. Even the most boring presenter can bring a meeting to life.

There are several AI avatar companies on the market, including Hey Gen, D-ID, and Veed. They all have varying degrees of animation and emotion. Some are working on models where the avatar walks and talks while presenting for use in a wider range of video formats.

Synthesia focuses on the corporate market, creating videos for internal and external use related to sales, marketing, and finance. Its ease of use is outstanding, and the new avatars make it more human; others, including Hey Gen, allow for more realistic avatars and better voice cloning, but are not as expressive as Synthesia.

One of my favorite features of Synthesia is the ability to create videos from almost anything. I gave Synthesia a link to an article I wrote about Sora, and in less than five minutes, I had a 10-slide deck with an avatar on each screen talking about the story.

A Synthesia spokesperson told me: "Our AI avatars will reshape how employees connect, interact, and learn, creating a more dynamic and knowledgeable workforce for tomorrow."

With basic free plans available, some social media creators are beginning to look to AI avatars as a way to get their message across and tell compelling stories, even if they do not want to use them in a corporate environment.

The primary use case, however, is business: sign up on the Synthesia website and start creating videos in minutes. This includes choosing from a selection of pre-made avatars and customizing them.

You can also create your own avatar from your own likeness. There are two ways to do this - either by reading a script on a webcam video or by entering Synthesia and recording an avatar in a studio. The latter method is necessary to properly represent the avatar.