Gemini’s Live Avatar Puts a Face on Its AI Agent. It’s Freaking Me Out

I’ve noticed a lot more businesses using AI agents to process customer support requests. But now it’s getting weird. 

Google’s Live Avatar feature is now available for those with Gemini Enterprise. This comes days after Google announced Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking. 

What exactly is Live Avatar? It combines an interactive visual experience with a conversational AI agent to do things like filing insurance claims through a video chat — which was Google’s example in its announcement. Businesses or those with Google Enterprise can choose from a few avatars to put a face to an AI agent’s voice. 

Live Avatar seems pretty handy for businesses. It can create live video avatars with lip synching for conversational videos and process live audio, screen sharing and video feeds simultaneously. Live Avatar can run tools and API calls while continuing conversations with customers. But imagine a cartoon or realistic-looking avatar’s lips moving to match the bot’s voice to handle your request. Creepy. 

Live Avatar also aims to create more fluid dialogue with native speech-to-speech for “more natural interruption recovery without dropping conversation context or backend transactions.” 

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on when it will be available to the general public or how it plans to safeguard the information the AI agent receives during video calls (like, in the insurance example, your address, name and live video when filing a claim). 

Google has a few safeguards in place to prevent misuse, like choosing from curated, prebuilt avatars. If you want to create a custom avatar, you’ll have to go through a verification process, Google’s announcement says. All audio and video are watermarked with SynthID to keep all AI content verifiable.

Dashia Milden

Senior Consumer Insights Editor

Dashia is the consumer insights editor for CNET. She specializes in data-driven analysis and news at the intersection of tech, personal finance and consumer sentiment. Dashia investigates economic shifts and everyday challenges to help readers make well-informed decisions, and she covers a range of topics, including technology, security, energy and money. Dashia graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She loves baking, teaching spinning and spending time with her family.

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