The role of AI in keynote speaking
I was giving a talk at an event recently. And the speaker immediately before me kicked off their talk with an AI avatar of themselves before revealing that they were in fact in the room.
I did not like it.
Not the technology but the application
The technology is not the problem. For what it is, it is deeply impressive. And I'm sure it has a lot of applications. But I don't think that speaking to an audience alongside real humans is it.
It fails for one very simple reason: a keynote is not a monologue, it is a dialogue.
As a good public speaker you are interacting with the audience, even if it is subliminally. You are sensing the mood and energy in the room. You are tweaking the timing of jokes and pauses. You are responding to what's happened and been said before you go on stage.
An avatar can do none of those things.
Demand for in-person events is growing. And it's beyond the COVID bounce-back, as our previous post highlighted. People don't want to go to an in-person event and be faced with a screen. They want interaction. They want to ask questions, chat over a sandwich, or just be part of the atmosphere, the shared jokes, the conversation.
It’s all in the preparation
This isn't to say that AI has no application in the production and presentation of a keynote.
Image showing the author as a superhero in tights and a cape, hovering in the sky
I make moderate use of image generators when I can't find appropriate stock photography (they can even make me look like a superhero). If slide design isn't your thing, then AI tools can now do a very admirable job of that. Personally, I don't use videos in my talks, but if you do, AI can help you edit or even produce entirely new pieces.
Generative AI can help you to research talks. I've certainly become more reliant on Google's AI results recently. But you have to be cautious and double check your findings.
AI can probably even help you to script a talk, though I wouldn't recommend this. As a speaker, your voice, your story is what makes you stand out. Will it save time? Sure. But at huge cost to the value you bring.
Speaking is performance
AI tools are already super sophisticated. And with my futurist hat on, I can see them rapidly gaining in capability and adoption. But I really, really, don’t see them displacing the attraction of a real human, in the room with you, telling their story.
We’ve now been pitched as an agency by three different AI avatar companies looking to recruit speakers. I like the people and I like the technology. But I don’t see the application for us: it’s the antithesis of what our speakers offer. And when we put the idea of partnering to our speakers, to see what they thought, we were met with absolute indifference.
This post may look wrong-headed in the future, and I’m OK with that. But for now, we won’t be offering AI avatars of our speakers.