Artificial Intelligence (AI) is providing a growing presence in all walks of life, and now Perth-headquartered UNITH (ASX: UNT) has used “digital human” technology to land a major international e-lottery contract.
The company is a leader in the creation of digital humans that are human-like virtual AI characters designed to interact with people. Some have described them as an update to chat bots, in many cases digital humans are indistinguishable from real people.
In UNITH’s case, its digital humans use machine learning to create high-value conversations that problem-solve and capture user insights with a company’s customers for example.
UNITH’s digital human software has been created on the back of significant research and development into facial movement deep learning, audio machine learning, and conversational design to generate the first customisable, interactive avatar of its kind.
The company says customers are able to create their own digital humans to immerse, assist, and educate customers in real time and in multiple languages, all through one full stack platform.
Global interest growing
That specialist technology is a creating global interest, including the signing of a binding purchase order from Xite Holdings for artificial intelligence- powered digital humans that will be deployed to that company’s AZBillions global e-lottery platform.
The AZBillions.com website is wholly-owned and operated by Xite as an online platform where users around the globe can purchase tickets to lotteries all over the world.
Under the new agreement, UNITH has 12 months to provide Xite with unique digital humans which have the necessary languages, visual appearances, voices and facial expressions to match each region they will be deployed in.
The initial digital human will be equipped with Latin American features and will be able to converse with AZBillions users in Spanish, assisting them with their online purchases.
UNITH chief executive officer, Idan Schmorak, said the company will also provide technical support over the 12 months with continuous testing, optimisation and performance analytics provided.
“We are glad to be working with Xite as the AI provider for AZBillions which has a large addressable market covering customers around the world,” he said.
“This is another excellent application of UNITH’s digital humans that can converse in multiple languages and respond instantly while substantially reducing Xite’s expenses if they were to perform these tasks with traditional labour.”
Huge global interest in e-lotteries
Xite Holdings chief executive officer, Craig Austin, noted that in 2022 approximately $40.3 billion of revenue was generated from the global online lottery industry, up from $21.3 billion in 2017 with a projected CAGR of 14.9%.
“Online websites are becoming the preferred purchase point for lottery tickets so we are delighted to be able to expand AZBillions into more international markets with the support of UNITH and their AI digital humans,” Mr Austin said.
“Customer service and response times have been a critical measure of our growth and we see an excellent opportunity to work with UNITH to improve these metrics and deliver our global customers a seamless experience.”
Spectacular digital human market
Brainy Insights recently estimated that in 2022 the global digital human avatar market was valued at $8 billion. It is forecasting it will reach $233.5 billion in 2032.
It found that the shift towards online platforms across industries has accelerated the adoption of digital human avatars for better customer management services.
North America is expected to rise the fastest during the forecast period.
According to Brainy Insights, the region is home to the top metaverse investors and developers, leading to a fostering of new innovation and accelerating market expansion.
