A talking avatar is an animated virtual character that can communicate with a user through real or synthetic speech. The technology is increasingly being used in customer service, video games, social media, virtual reality and film special effects. [3] Many websites use talking avatars to greet and welcome visitors and introduce their products or services. Examples include BobDog Wine, Qarbon Solutions and DNA Boots. These non-interactive talking avatars are usually female with a cheerful, friendly voice and provide one-way conversational dialogue with users to help them navigate around the website.

Aside from their ability to convey a human-like and engaging personality, talking avatars can also be useful in reducing consumer uncertainty and ambiguity. Empirical studies have shown that when consumers interact with a talking avatar, they feel more familiar with the product and are more likely to trust it. This is primarily due to the presence of peripheral cues that can increase perceived familiarity, such as body gestures, eye contact, facial expressions and voice tones.

Talking avatars can be used for various purposes such as in video presentations, websites, blogs, apps and even for customer support. They can be either 2D or 3D and can animate characters from a pre-recorded audio file or can lip-sync with the user’s live voice.

There are a number of different talking avatar software programs that can be used to create an animated talking avatar. This selection of the best talking avatar software includes both free and paid programs that can be used to jazz up any presentation or video content.   talking avatar