Synthesia now lets you create AI avatar presentations using your webcam

New updates released by Synthesia include the ability to create an AI avatar using your webcam or phone, “full-body” avatars with hands and arms, and a screen recording tool that lets your AI avatar guide you through what you're watching.

Synthesia, which is said to be used by almost half of the Fortfune 500, uses AI avatars for all sorts of purposes.

These can range from creating customized training videos to guide employees through specific processes to generating promotional materials that can be displayed in the form of videos rather than emails or other text communications.

But it wasn't always this way: For the first three years after it was founded, Synthesia tried to sell its technology to Hollywood agencies and big-budget video production companies, according to co-founder and CEO Victor Liparberg. The company was using computer vision for its AI dubbing tool, which makes mouth movements more realistic for different languages.

“What we realized is that the quality bar for doing anything with these people is very high, and whatever we do, we're only a small part of a much larger process,” Riperberg told CNBC in an interview at the company's London offices.

“What's even more interesting is the democratization aspect of it, that there are millions of people in the world who want to make videos, but aren't making them right now because they don't have the budget.”

Synthesia's CEO announced the company's new products in an Apple-esque keynote, touting them as more than just a platform offering AI avatars, but a suite of productivity-focused tools for use by businesses.

One of the biggest new features the company showed off was the option to create an AI-generated avatar by recording less than five minutes of footage with your webcam or cell phone, and you can also replicate your voice and have your avatar speak in several different languages.

Typically, creating an AI avatar using Synthesia's platform requires an in-person studio visit: A human actor goes into a recording booth, records their voice, and performs their lines in front of a green screen on a real film set.

All of this is training data to provide Synthesia's AI algorithms with the facial and vocal nuances they need to create human-like avatars that speak expressively. Earlier this year, Synthesia unveiled new expressive avatars that can convey human emotions, including happiness, sadness and frustration.

But now, Synthesia is introducing new software that makes it easy for users to create a digital version of themselves from anywhere, using just a webcam and Synthesia's software.

The company is also launching the ability to create full-body avatars, which differ from Synthesia's current avatars, which are limited to portrait view only, and now lets you create avatars with moving hands in a studio surrounded by dozens of cameras, sensors, and lights.

Generating hands has traditionally been difficult for AI because hands are only a small part of the human body and are not typically the focal point in visual content.

Synthesia has also introduced the option to play videos of AI avatars speaking in your language of choice, including English, French, German, and Chinese.

In the future, Synthesia says it will be possible to customize AI avatars for different countries — so that, instead of an American avatar, a Nigerian avatar could guide a user through a tutorial, for example.

Synthesia also launched a new AI video assistant that can create summaries of entire articles or documents, helping, for example, a human resources professional create a short video explaining their company's benefits package.

Another big feature the company is rolling out is a new screen recording tool that lets you have an AI avatar guide you through what you're watching.

In an interview with CNBC, Liparberry characterized what Synthesia is doing as an enterprise-focused product overhaul that will put it more similar to big companies like Microsoft, Salesforce and Zoom in the enterprise space.

“The world has been amazed by this product over the last 12 to 18 to 24 months, and it's been amazing,” Liperberg told CNBC.

“But now we've done a lot of experimentation and found the right use cases for these technologies that have lasting business value. They're not just short-term PR gimmicks.”

“You need to achieve your business goal of reducing customer support tickets by showing videos instead of text. Or you need to make videos and sell instead of just sending emails,” he added.

“Today, people are creating workflows around it. They need better ways to not only interface with AI models, but also achieve their business goals. That's where we're heading as a company.”

Last year, Synthesia raised $90 million from investors including U.S. chipmaker Nvidia and venture capital firm Accel, giving it a valuation of $1 billion and earning it “unicorn” status.

Its competitors include AI video tools Veed, Colossyan, Elai and HeyGen, while Chinese social media app TikTok recently launched Symphony Assistant, a product that lets creators create their own AI avatars.

The company generates revenue through a range of subscription pricing plans, ranging from a $22 “Starter” plan and a $67 “Creator” plan, to a custom “Enterprise” plan, the price of which is determined based on negotiations with Synthesia's sales team.