Blog

Ever wished you could speak dozens of different languages? Well, with AI voice cloning, you can translate your own voice into more than 30 languages using just one short recording of your real voice. 

Plus, when you pair your voice clone with your very own custom avatar, you can create a digital human that both looks and sounds like you. That way, you can create realistic and personalized audio and visual content at scale. 

In this blog, we’ll dive into what voice cloning is, the benefits of voice cloning, and finally, how to clone your own voice in just a few steps. 

What is voice cloning? 

Voice cloning is the process of creating an artificial version of a human voice that sounds almost identical to the real person’s voice. Voice cloning technology is made possible by advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. 

Voice cloning differs from more traditional methods of synthesizing voice, as the technology is able to capture unique characteristics of a person’s voice – such as tone, pitch, and style – to create highly realistic human-like speech. 

Once your voice has been cloned, you’re able to input any script, which is then read aloud by the cloned voice using text-to-speech technology. Your cloned voice can be used to narrate AI video content, pair with a custom avatar, or even speak in different languages. 

Check it out: 

How does voice cloning work?

The voice cloning process begins with a voice sample, which is typically a 1 to 5 minute recording of your natural-sounding voice. 

Once you upload your recording to an AI voice cloning software, your sample is analyzed to identify patterns and key characteristics that are unique to the speaker’s voice. This includes features like your intonation and rhythm, which are key in ensuring your voice sounds like you. 

These features are then used to train an AI model, so that the model learns how to replicate your distinctive voice characteristics. Once the model has been trained, your synthetic voice can be used to generate speech that resembles your target voice from basic text inputs. 

Benefits of AI voice cloning

AI voice cloning allows you to create consistent, personalized content that’s easily accessible, without having to manually record a voice over every time. Here’s a closer look at the top voice cloning benefits. 

1. Scalability 

Traditional voice over recording requires considerable time and effort from voice actors, especially when creating large volumes of content. Most of the time, you’ll need a few takes to get your voice over just right, and you’ll need a quiet environment and good equipment to get high-quality results. 

Instead, with voice cloning, a single voice sample can be used to generate countless voice overs. Simply add a new input script whenever you need a new voice over, and your AI voice cloning software will use text-to-speech technology to create a new audio file for you. 

Not only will you save a significant amount of time recording your voice, but you can also create studio-quality audio or video content from anywhere – even the noisiest environments.  

2. Consistency

Maintaining a consistent voice across various content or different communication channels is crucial for brand identity and viewer engagement. When using multiple voice actors or relying on different recordings over time, it can be challenging to keep the tone, style, and pace of the voice consistent.

AI voice cloning eliminates these inconsistencies by providing a uniform voice that remains the same regardless of the content or how much time has passed. Further, relying on a single consistent voice can also build trust and familiarity with viewers who are interacting with a series of your content.

3. Accessibility

Voice cloning can make content more accessible to people with visual impairments by generating audio versions of written content, such as articles, instructions, or eBooks. 

This way, everyone can access information in a format that suits their needs or learning preferences, without adding a substantial amount of work for the content creator. 

What can voice cloning be used for?

Voice cloning can be used in dozens of different contexts. In fact, there are too many use cases to name here. Let’s take a look at a few of our favorite applications. 

Content localization

One of the most impactful applications of voice cloning is in content localization. For global businesses in need of multilingual material, traditional voice overs require you to manually record someone speaking in each language. And unless that person is multilingual, you’ll have a different voice actor for each language, creating inconsistencies in your content. 

But with voice cloning, the exact same voice can be translated across different languages, allowing you to maintain brand cohesion while still making content accessible for a global team. 

For instance, you could even clone your company CEO’s voice and translate it to over 30 different languages, allowing multilingual team members to receive company-wide messages in a more personalized manner.

Training videos 

Traditionally, creating training content requires voice actors to record narration for each module, which can be a long and costly process. With voice cloning, organizations can quickly create high-quality voice overs for training videos without needing to repeatedly hire actors.

This is especially useful when subject matter experts are creating training materials, as they don’t always have the time to record new voice overs when content changes. 

Instead, they can simply update their voice over script, and create a new audio file automatically using their cloned voice. 

Also read: The Key Advantages of Using AI Avatars in Training Videos

Entertainment 

There are many opportunities for voice cloning to bring TV and video game characters to life, as production teams don’t need to rely on an actor’s availability to create audio of their voice. 

But also, there’s a lot of potential for voice cloning to be used in audiobook and podcast production, as your cloned voice could read aloud chapters of a book for you, saving you significant time in the recording process. 

How to clone your voice in 3 easy steps 

Voice cloning technology is now more accessible than ever. Platforms like Colossyan make it easy to clone your voice in just a few steps, and use that voice clone in your video content. 

Colossyan also allows you to pair your cloned voice with a custom avatar that both looks and sounds like you, allowing you to create audio and visual content without any camera or microphone equipment. 

Here’s how it works: 

Step 1: Record a short audio clip 

In order to produce a high-quality AI voice clone, you’ll need to start by recording a short audio clip that captures your natural speech pattern, including your tone, pitch, and pace. 

You can either read from a script that Colossyan provides, or upload an existing audio file of yourself speaking. What’s important is that your audio is clear and free of any distracting background noise. 

Step 2: Upload it to Colossyan 

Next, you’ll simply upload an existing audio recording of your voice to Colossyan, or record a new audio file of your voice using the script we provide. 

Our recording script is in English, but you’re welcome to upload a voice over in any of our supported languages for us to clone as well. 

Once you’ve uploaded a sample of your voice to Colossyan and given us consent to clone your voice, you’ll have the freedom to tweak your voice parameters, fine tuning it to ensure you’re fully satisfied with the outcome. 

Step 3: Review it and begin using it

Once Colossyan brings your voice to life, you’ll have the opportunity to preview it to ensure it accurately reflects your voice’s unique characteristics. If you’re satisfied with the result, you can begin adding your cloned voice to videos and start creating content. 

Alternatively, if you’re looking to create a realistic custom avatar along with a custom voice, you can clone your voice during Colossyan’s instant avatar workflow. Here’s how it works: 

Once your instant avatar is created, you’ll have a custom avatar that both looks and sounds like you. Instant avatars can be created in any setting, and any body movements or hand motions will be reflected in your final avatar result. 

Takeaway

Whether you’re looking to localize content, make your training videos more personalized, or add consistency to your brand voice, voice cloning is a great place to start. 

Platforms like Colossyan are making it easy for individuals and businesses alike to harness this technology to create realistic voice clones with minimal effort. Plus, with Colossyan’s robust suite of AI video features, you can leverage your cloned voice for higher quality audio and visual content. 

Colossyan allows you to pair your voice clone with any of our 150+ stock avatars, or even with your own custom avatar for added customization. No need to pick up a camera or record a tedious voice over ever again. 

‍Give Colossyan a try for free today – or book a call with our team of experts to learn more.

{{banner}}

In today’s digital world, video content is more important than ever. Attention spans are shrinking, and the demand for more visual content is growing. 

Many teams are looking for a more efficient way to develop video content, and AI video tools are an up-and-coming solution that can help you create more content faster and more cost effectively. 

In this blog, we’ll break down the key differences between AI avatar videos and traditional videos, comparing the costs, customization capabilities, and more. 

By the end of this article, you’ll have a better sense of which type of video is best suited for your goals. 

What are AI avatars? 

AI avatars are computer-generated digital representations of a person, designed to represent humans in video content. They use advanced artificial intelligence technology to mimic human expressions, movements, and voices. 

These AI avatars allow you to create videos without needing a human actor, camera crew, or production team. Instead, you input a script and select a talking avatar, and from there you can customize your avatar’s appearance or voice to fit your message or audience. 

Main use cases for AI avatar videos 

Because AI avatars are so customizable, the potential use cases are limitless. That said, AI avatar videos are especially prevalent in many instructional contexts. 

Here are some main ways these digital avatar videos are already being used: 

Training and eLearning content

AI avatar videos can deliver educational materials consistently and in multiple languages, making them ideal for global teams. Plus, you can easily update your training content without having to refilm anything. 

Corporate communications

AI avatars help companies create personalized video updates, internal announcements, or introduce new company processes, all at scale.

Related: A Complete Guide to Using Videos in Corporate Communications

Customer support

AI avatar videos can be used to help customers resolve issues on their own, providing a human-like experience without requiring additional staff.

Also read: The Top 5 Benefits of Using AI Avatars in Your Video Content

What are traditional videos? 

Traditional videos involve live recordings of people and real-world settings, typically shot with a camera crew, actors, and complete with professional editing, lighting and sound design. In other words, these are the types of videos you’re likely most familiar with. 

Manually creating these videos can give your content a human-centered approach that’s helpful with storytelling and building emotional connections with your audience. However, scripting, recording, and editing your videos manually can take a lot of time. 

Main use cases for traditional videos 

Some contexts are slightly better suited for traditional videos over AI videos. Let’s take a look at when manual video creation might be best. 

Marketing promotions

Traditional videos are often used in campaigns where emotional storytelling is key to connecting with viewers. Ads and customer testimonials are common examples. 

Event-based content

When creating content about a particular event, using real-life footage from the event is one of the best ways to make your viewers feel like they were there. 

Brand storytelling

When companies want to highlight their culture, values, or community initiatives, traditional videos help tell these stories in a genuine way.

Key differences of AI videos vs. traditional videos 

When determining whether to create an AI video or a traditional video, there are a couple of differences you’ll want to keep in mind. 

Here’s an overview of the key differences between these two types of videos: 

Cost 

One of the most significant differences between AI avatar videos and traditional videos is the cost. Traditional video production can be expensive, especially when it involves hiring actors, camera crews, locations, and editors. On top of that, travel, equipment, and post-production expenses can quickly add up.

AI avatars, by contrast, are far more affordable. Since the avatars are generated through software, there’s no need for expensive crews or equipment. This means AI avatars can offer significant savings for companies with tight budgets or those looking to produce videos in bulk. 

Time 

Time is another key factor when deciding between AI avatar videos and traditional videos. Traditional video production takes time – from pre-production planning and filming to post-production editing. Each stage can require weeks or even months of work, especially if you’re producing content at a high level of quality.

On the other hand, AI avatar videos only take a few minutes to create. Once you’ve written a script, an AI avatar generator will produce the avatar video for you. 

This speed and efficiency make AI avatars perfect for companies that need to produce video content quickly, plus, you won’t have to manually update your materials as the content evolves. 

Personalization 

Personalization is where AI avatar videos shine. You can select an AI avatar that reflects the diversity of your audience, and change the avatar’s language or accent for added personalization. 

For example, if you’re producing training materials for a global workforce, you can create localized versions with avatars that speak different languages or represent the different demographics of employees in each office. 

While traditional videos can also be personalized, doing so is more challenging and expensive. For instance, you’ll need to reshoot scenes, hire actors with your desired characteristics, or record multiple language versions to make your videos feel personalized – all of which require time and additional costs.

Engagement 

When it comes to creating engaging videos, both traditional videos and AI avatar videos offer unique strengths. 

On one hand, using real-life actors in your traditional videos can make your content feel authentic and genuine, thanks to your actors’ natural expressions, body language, and tone of voice. 

On the other hand, AI avatar videos offer greater opportunities for engagement with tech-savvy audiences. AI avatars can be interactive, delivering personalized content, responding to user input, or providing a more dynamic, real-time experience.

How to decide which video format is right for you 

Ultimately, the right video format for your team entirely depends on your specific needs, goals, and budget. 

That said, the following factors could determine which video format is best suited for your needs. 

When to use AI avatar videos 

AI avatars are best for teams looking to scale their content production without incurring a significant increase in cost or time requirements. 

Here are some factors to consider:

1. Cost effectiveness is a priority 

AI avatars are the clear winner when it comes to cost efficiency. If your goal is to produce multiple videos on a limited budget, AI avatars provide a scalable option.

2. You need a quick turnaround

For content that needs to be produced quickly or frequently – like training videos, updates, or product demos – AI avatars offer a speed advantage over traditional video production.

3. You want to localize content for multiple audiences

If you’re targeting different audience segments or languages, AI avatar videos make it easy to personalize and localize content for a global audience.

4. You’re committed to innovation

AI avatars are ideal for companies that want to present a forward-thinking, innovative image. They’re also useful for industries where making content interactive is a top priority.

When to use traditional videos 

Teams that meet the following criteria might find traditional videos to be best for their needs. 

1. You’re working with complex visuals

Although some AI avatar tools allow you to use multiple avatars in a single scene, videos featuring a group of people might be more easily captured the traditional way. 

2. You have very limited video needs

Scalability is one of the top benefits of AI video. But for teams who don’t need a lot of video content, traditional videos may be sufficient, despite the higher cost. 

However, if you’re looking for a combination of traditional video and AI avatar videos, you’ll want to check out Colossyan’s Instant Avatar feature, which allows you to create an avatar of yourself from a video recorded in any setting. 

This free AI avatar generator allows you to film your scenario-based video footage once, and reuse that footage with any script you’d like. You’ll still get the body language of a natural video, but with the ability to create content at scale. 

Create your first AI avatar video for free with Colossyan 

Now that you know everything about AI avatar videos, you’re probably wondering where to start. Using an AI avatar creator is the fastest way to get your videos off the ground. 

Colossyan is the leading AI video tool that helps teams create professional-quality videos in minutes using text-to-speech AI avatars. 

With Colossyan, you can skip the acting, filming, and editing associated with traditional video production, and create high-quality video content in minutes – without having to pick up a camera. 

Simply add your script (or have our AI script assistant write one for you), select an avatar, and create your video. With over 150 diverse avatars to choose from, you’ll have an array of different actors to work with. 

Here’s an example video created with Colossyan:

And don’t forget, Colossyan’s Instant Avatar feature allows you to integrate some of the benefits of traditional videos into your AI generated content as well. Give instant avatars a try here – it’s completely free to make an AI avatar of yourself. 

Takeaway

Both AI avatar videos and traditional videos have their place in today’s digital landscape. 

Whereas an AI avatar app will allow you to create engaging video content quickly and efficiently, traditional videos still enable you to create emotionally moving videos with strong storytelling. At the end of the day, you’ll want to choose the format that best aligns with your objectives. 

But if you decide that the cost efficiency and time-saving benefit of AI video works best for your team, don’t forget to give Colossyan a try or book a demo to learn more. 

You can even create your very own custom avatar that looks and sounds like you for free today – it only takes a few minutes to create in Colossyan.

October 10, 2024 – Colossyan, the AI video platform for workplace learning, has announced a new API integration with ClickLearn, a market-leading solution for creating easy user instructions, eLearning, and process videos for business software.

Colossyan’s text-to-speech technology enables users to add AI avatars to their eLearning videos, speeding up the content creation process and eliminating the need to manually film content.

This partnership allows ClickLearn users to leverage Colossyan’s cutting-edge AI video generation within the ClickLearn environment, meaning ClickLearn users can transform PowerPoints, PDF, and other documents into high-quality videos hosted by AI avatars.

“We’re excited to introduce ClickLearn’s user base to Colossyan’s AI avatars and voices. Our features can help make their ClickLearn content significantly more engaging than text-only material, boosting learning outcomes in the process,” says Dominik Mate Kovacs, CEO and founder of Colossyan.

For more information on accessing Colossyan within ClickLearn, please see here for instructions.

About Colossyan

At Colossyan, we're pushing the boundaries of digital learning by offering unparalleled access to our powerful API, designed to help you create videos using AI avatars and voices within your existing systems and applications. Revolutionize your workplace learning experiences with customizable, engaging, and interactive video content that scales with your needs.

About ClickLearn

ClickLearn is a leading digital adoption platform that simplifies the creation of user guides, training materials, and process documentation for enterprise software. It enables organizations to streamline software onboarding and training by automating the capture of workflows and generating interactive, multi-format content. ClickLearn’s unique recording technology delivers a superior learning experience for end users and makes life easier for IT departments and management.

You might be surprised to learn that deskless workers make up 80% of the global workforce, meaning most people don't spend their day-to-day working from an office.

Instead, deskless workers work at factories, field sites, or other facilities, completing many of the jobs that keep the global economy running. 

In this blog, we’ll cover what deskless workers are, how they differ from frontline workers, and finally, how deskless workers can leverage AI for better training outcomes. Let’s dive in. 

What are deskless workers?

Deskless workers are people who perform their jobs away from a traditional office desk. They usually work in places like factories, construction sites, hospitals, or retail stores. 

Unlike office workers, whose jobs primarily consist of sitting at a desk and working at a computer, deskless workers often rely more on their hands and physical skills to get their job done, such as through building things, fixing machinery, or assisting customers. 

What’s the difference between frontline workers and deskless workers?

Deskless and frontline workers have a lot of overlap, but they have distinct differences. 

Frontline workers are employees who are the first point of contact in delivering services or products directly to customers or the public. They work in roles like healthcare, retail, hospitality, or emergency services, where they interact with people or provide essential services.

On the other hand, deskless workers are employees who don’t work in an office environment. Although all frontline employees are deskless, deskless employees can also include blue collar workers in fields like construction or manufacturing, who may not interact with the public but still perform hands-on tasks away from a desk. 

Main industries for deskless workers

Deskless workers make up a significant portion of the global workforce, playing vital roles across various industries where mobility and hands-on tasks are key. 

Below are some of the largest industries for deskless workers and frontline employees:

• Agriculture 
• Manufacturing 
• Transportation and logistics 
• Construction 
• Hospitality 
• Retail 

Key challenges involved in training a deskless workforce

Successfully training deskless workers can be extremely difficult. 

Industries like construction or manufacturing have a significant amount of safety and compliance rules and regulations to educate employees on, but since deskless workers aren’t sitting in an office at a computer, traditional training delivery methods are often insufficient. 

38% of deskless workers rank adequate training and upskilling as a top driver of their success and happiness at work, but nearly 3 in 10 say they don’t have access to adequate training and upskilling. 

There are a few reasons why training deskless workers can be challenging – let’s take a look at a few key factors. 

High turnover rates 

Many deskless jobs see incredibly high turnover rates, as some industries – such as fast-casual restaurants – are often viewed as temporary jobs. Other fields, like construction, can have high injury rates, which also tends to increase turnover. 

High turnover rates can pose a significant challenge, as they require employers to frequently hire new employees and continuously conduct new hire onboarding training. 

Having to repeat training programs for short-term or temporary workers can be costly. But on the other hand, failing to properly train all employees can increase the likelihood of a safety incident and the burnout risk for managers who are more costly to replace. 

Lack of direct communication

Because a construction company may have employees spread across multiple job sites, or working different shifts, it’s not uncommon for deskless workers to have less direct contact with supervisors. 

In fact, 4 in 10 deskless workers believe fractured communication poses a significant challenge in their day-to-day work, contributing to a lack of strong feedback loops. 

And because internal communication systems like email or Slack are usually less common in deskless workplaces, this communication gap can make it difficult to keep employees up to date on updated safety guidelines and other company updates, for instance. 

Numerous safety and compliance requirements

Many deskless industries, like healthcare or construction, have strict safety and compliance requirements that all employees must follow when on the job. 

To avoid potential safety risks, fines, or legal liabilities, employers must provide deskless workers with robust training and keep them updated on changes – a task that’s challenging due to the volume and complexity of these requirements. 

Safety and compliance training isn’t a one-and-done type of training either – it’s something that requires regular refresher courses and reminders, which can be difficult for employers to keep up with. 

Limited access to technology 

Deskless employees that spend most of their time working in the field may not have a company-issued computer, which can limit their ability to access digital training materials. 

This can pose a challenge for employers, who must find a way to provide flexible, on-demand training that’s mobile friendly, since much of their workforce relies on a phone or tablet alone. 

5 advantages of using AI video to train deskless workers 

By now, you can see how training a deskless workforce can be extremely challenging. 

Because your deskless workers may be spread across many job sites, online on-demand training is often the most convenient option for training. 

With online video-based training, your deskless workers can consume content at their own pace, and refer back to the material later on if they have questions. 

The problem? Training videos can quickly become outdated as company processes change, causing you to constantly need to refilm your content. 

This is where AI can help. Using an AI video tool allows you to leverage AI avatars in your training content, meaning you can create professional-quality content in minutes. And if your material changes, you can simply update your script and regenerate your video, without having to manually refilm your actors. 

AI video is by far the fastest and most efficient way to train a deskless workforce. Still skeptical? Let’s take a closer look at five of the biggest advantages of using an AI video tool like Colossyan. 

1. Automatically translate your videos 

Safety training is extremely important, but if your training is delivered in a language that some of your employees aren’t fully comfortable with, you run the risk of having valuable information slip through the cracks. 

To combat this, Colossyan’s translation feature allows you to automatically convert your training videos into 100+ languages in just a few clicks. 

Not only will your multilingual content have subtitles, but your AI avatars can speak every language – complete with accurate lip sync – adding extra realism to your training content. 

2. Quickly update your content as it changes

Let’s say a new safety law goes into effect that you now need to incorporate into your content. If you’re relying on traditional videos to train your team, you’ll need to manually refilm your videos to update your content. 

Instead, with a text-to-speech AI video solution, all you’ll need to do is update your script to reflect the necessary changes, and regenerate your video. 

In a matter of minutes, you’ll have a new video that’s completely updated – without needing to hire actors, rent camera equipment, or spend hours editing your video. 

3. Improve accessibility 

Video content is one of the most accessible mediums of content, as deskless workers can access their video-based training materials anytime, anywhere, and using mobile devices. 

This makes it easy to fit training requirements into any schedule, whether your deskless employees are working remotely or in the field. And if there’s a sudden update to training requirements, you can easily send out your training videos for immediate review, without having to gather the team in person. 

On a content level, video combines visual and auditory content to help make your material more impactful. Including subtitles or on-screen animations can make your content easier to understand for those who may have hearing difficulties as well. 

4. Save on training costs 

Time is money – and the longer it takes to create training content, the more expensive it’s likely to be. This is especially true for videos involving multiple actors, multilingual scripts, and an experienced editor. 

Instead of having to hire a bunch of different vendors to help bring those training videos to life, an AI video platform will allow you to easily produce those videos yourself in a matter of minutes, allowing you to produce professional-quality material at a more affordable price point. 

5. Personalize your videos 

Personalizing your training videos can sometimes add an extra layer of cost and complexity when creating videos the traditional way. However, AI video tools allow you to personalize your videos for deskless workers at no additional cost. 

For example, Colossyan’s branded avatar feature allows you to add your logos to stock avatar clothing, adding an extra personal touch to your AI presenter. 

Or, if you’d prefer to have your CEO or other brand representatives star in your video, you can create their very own custom avatar using Colossyan’s new instant avatar feature. 

Their instant avatar will both look and sound just like them, but can be paired with any script, meaning you won’t need to refilm them every time you need to create a new video. Just add a new script, and their avatar will have realistic lip sync in more than 100 languages. 

Here’s how it works: 

The future of deskless work

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have already begun playing an increased role in automating mundane administrative office tasks, and the role of AI in deskless work is sure to increase in the coming years. 

The shift toward more AI in a deskless work environment doesn’t have to be incredibly resource intensive, either. AI software tools bring a range of capabilities that can help improve your deskless worker employee experience and boost job satisfaction without high startup costs. 

One of the most impactful uses of AI in deskless work is through clock in and out apps, which simplify attendance tracking and ensure accurate timekeeping.These tools are especially valuable in industries like construction, where on-site staff need simple and reliable ways to log their hours. A clock in and out app for construction staff not only reduces administrative workload but also helps monitor productivity in real time, enhancing workforce management on-site.

Deskless workers and employers alike have expressed an openness to increasing their tech stack, with half of the deskless employees surveyed said they’d like to use technology to address the lack of employee training.

Further, 82% of industry decision makers plan to increase spending on deskless worker technology, with an averaged planned increase in spend of 31% across industries. 

In the coming years, we can expect to see more AI software tools develop solutions for a better employee experience. In the meantime, AI video is a great way to begin strengthening your team’s training and upskilling processes. 

Create training content for any audience with Colossyan

We’ve already discussed how AI video can help you train your deskless workers in an accessible and engaging way. But the easiest way to get started with AI video is with Colossyan. 

Colossyan is the text-to-speech AI video platform for workplace learning. With AI avatars, templates, interactive features, and more – Colossyan is the go-to choice for many teams looking to train their deskless workers more efficiently. 

But don’t just take our word for it – try Colossyan for free today. Or, schedule a demo with one of our experts to learn more.

As generative AI continues to revolutionize the way we create video content, many teams are looking for more ways to keep their content feeling personalized and engaging. 

One of the best ways to ensure your AI video content feels authentic and forges meaningful connections with your audience is by using custom avatars. 

In this blog, we’ll cover what a custom avatar is, their benefits, and how to make an AI avatar of yourself. 

What is a custom avatar? 

A custom avatar is a digital character created by artificial intelligence to look and act like a real person. They’re typically used in videos, presentations, and other virtual environments to deliver messages in a personalized and engaging way. 

Custom avatars are usually created based on a photo or video of a real person, and are then programmed to lip sync to various scripts, speak different languages, or convey body language. 

For those who create a lot of video content, a custom avatar is helpful because it can “speak” to an audience without requiring you to manually record footage every time. Instead, you can just update your avatar’s script and generate a new video.

Benefits of custom avatars 

Many AI video tools – including Colossyan – offer a large library of stock AI avatars, which serve as ready-to-use premade avatars that don’t require any customization. 

You might be wondering, why create a custom avatar when you could use a stock avatar instead? 

Well, there are many benefits that come with the added personalization that crafting your own avatar brings. Here are a few of the benefits. 

1. Improves personalization

Generic video presenters might get the job done, but they certainly aren’t the most engaging hosts for your content. 

Instead, custom avatars allow you to make your videos less generic. For example, a custom avatar of your company’s CEO will allow you to relay internal communications from a familiar face rather than a complete stranger. 

Plus, custom avatars allow this personalization to transcend language barriers. If your CEO clones their voice, their custom avatar can be used to communicate in over 30 languages – meaning you can create personalized videos for all employees, even if they don’t speak English. 

Also read: 5 Ways to Personalize Your Video Content for Better Results

2. Makes content production more scalable 

Traditional video production is not scalable for many teams. Not only does filming take a long time, but you’re also forced to rely on your actor’s availability and ability to memorize lines in order to create videos. 

Instead, when you create a custom avatar, you only need to record them once, and you can then have their text-to-speech custom avatar recite any script you choose. The custom avatar will be properly lip synced to the script to ensure a realistic result. 

A video that used to take weeks of scripting, filming, and editing can now be completed in minutes with the help of a custom avatar – making content significantly more scalable. 

3. Ensures consistent messaging 

Maintaining consistency in branded content is a top priority for many teams. Custom AI avatars are a great way to ensure consistency, as you can use the same avatars in all of your content without having to refilm them every time. 

When to use a custom avatar

The benefits of custom avatars are clear. So, when should you use a custom avatar? 

There are several use cases that work best for personalized avatars. Let’s take a look: 

eLearning content 

Custom AI avatars are a great fit for eLearning videos, as they’re easy to update as your material evolves. 

Additionally, the credibility of your eLearning content might depend on the likeness of a certain instructor, so creating an AI avatar of that instructor is a great way for them to easily scale their content creation process. 

Internal communications 

Messages from company leadership feel more personal as videos rather than a dull email. However, recording a new video every time you have a message or update to share can take a lot of time. 

Instead, creating an AI avatar of your CEO or other company leader will allow them to create corporate video communications effortlessly. Simply add a new script and generate your avatar video. 

Sales demos 

Personalized sales messages tend to resonate better with prospects. With Colossyan’s instant avatar feature, your sales representatives can create an AI avatar of themselves and tailor their script to the needs of their top prospects in seconds. 

Marketing campaigns 

Creating new marketing assets for every campaign can be time consuming. Instead, leveraging custom AI avatars in your video content allows you to speed up the creation process and deliver promotional messages that feel both personal and human. 

How to create a custom avatar in less than 5 minutes 

Custom avatar technology is continuously evolving. Using Colossyan’s new Instant Avatar feature, you can now create a custom avatar instantly, using just your phone camera and 20 seconds of input footage. 

Here’s how it works. 

1. Record a short video clip of yourself 
2. Upload it to Colossyan 
3. Clone your voice
4. Preview your avatar and add it to a scene
5. Generate your video 

1. Record a short video clip of yourself 

In order to create a high-quality custom avatar, you’ll need to start with good input footage. 

Start by recording a short 20 second to 1 minute video of yourself. Keep in mind that your background, clothing, hand movements, and facial expressions will all be reflected in your final avatar. 

A few things to keep in mind for the best results: 

• Check your phone or camera settings: You’ll want to record at 1080p, 30fps, with HDR turned off for the highest-quality avatar result. 
• Check your lighting and video background: Choose a clean, uncluttered background for your video. Your video background will be visible behind your final avatar, so it’s important you record in the right setting. 
• Act naturally: The body language and hand gestures you record in this video will be reflected in your avatar. Switch your position every 10 seconds for the most natural-looking result. 
• Keep your mouth closed: Your lips will be synced with your script, so keep your mouth closed during your initial filming. 

2. Upload it to Colossyan 

When you’re happy with your video clip, upload it to Colossyan. Remember that your custom avatar will look just like the footage you upload, including the background and body movements. 

Colossyan’s custom instant avatar feature also supports photo uploads, meaning you can also create a custom avatar by uploading an image. 

Keep in mind that photo avatars will have head movement, blinking, and realistic lip sync, but their body will remain static.  

3. Clone your voice

If you’d like your custom avatar to both look and sound like you, you’ll need to clone your voice. 

To do so, upload a one minute voice recording of yourself to Colossyan. You can say anything in your voice recording – just try to make sure there’s no background noise, and that you’re speaking in the same tone you want your custom avatar to speak in. 

Your custom avatar will be able to speak more than 30 languages using your cloned voice. Alternatively, Colossyan offers hundreds of different stock voices you can choose from instead, which can be translated to 100+ different languages and accents. 

4. Preview your avatar and add it to a scene

Once you’ve uploaded the video or photo file as well as the voice recording, you’ll be directed to Colossyan’s video editing suite. 

From here, you can preview your custom avatar to ensure you’re happy with the results. This preview will appear in less than 60 seconds. 

If it looks as expected, you can then add it to your desired video scene in Colossyan.  

5. Generate your video

Once you’ve added your script and any other scenes or elements your video requires, the last step is to generate it. The generation time will depend on the length of your video, but it will usually take just a few minutes. 

Ensuring the ethical use of custom AI avatars 

Preventing the misuse of AI avatar generators is absolutely paramount. 

Colossyan’s new custom instant avatar feature includes age detection to prevent the creation of avatars of minors, a celebrity security filter to block the creation of avatars of public figures, and script moderation to prevent the use of avatars for violent or otherwise inappropriate content. 

Additionally, users are only allowed to create a personal avatar of themselves or of those who have given explicit consent. Your personal avatar will remain in your account alone – it will not be shared with any other Colossyan users. 

Create your own custom avatar for free today 

The best part about creating a custom avatar with Colossyan? It’s completely free. 

‍Sign up for Colossyan today to try it for yourself, or speak to a representative to learn more about our enterprise plan. Have fun creating!

NEW YORK, October 7, 2024 – Colossyan, the leading AI video platform for workplace learning, has released its Instant Avatar feature, a powerful new tool that allows users to create lifelike digital representations of themselves in seconds, using less than a minute of video footage. 

This feature revolutionizes AI video production – a global market that’s estimated at $5.53B – and brings an unprecedented level of personalization, speed, and convenience to the video creation process for content creators in corporate training, marketing, and sales.

“This new feature represents a major leap forward in AI video creation and training,” said Dominik Mate Kovacs, CEO and founder of Colossyan. “By allowing users to create highly personalized and lifelike custom avatars in seconds, we’re removing the barriers to producing professional-grade, multilingual video content. This advancement opens AI video up to so many new use cases, allowing users to create engaging and personal videos that are both authentic and easily scalable.” 

To create an Instant Avatar, users film and upload 20 to 30 seconds of video footage capturing their facial features, expressions, and body language. The video is then used to create a digital avatar with lifelike qualities that resemble their look, hand gestures, and body language. Each avatar can lip-sync and translate scripts from more than 70 languages, improving the global scalability and inclusivity of videos, especially in a corporate learning setting. 

Additionally, to ensure responsible use, Colossyan has implemented several security measures, including age detection to prevent the creation of avatars of minors, a celebrity security feature to block the creation of avatars of public figures, and script moderation to prevent the use of avatars for violent or otherwise inappropriate content. 

Key features of Instant Avatars include: 

• Minimal footage requirements: Users can create their high-quality custom Instant Avatar with just 20-30 seconds of video footage, shot on their cell phone. Custom avatars can also be created from just a static image, allowing for even more versatility and accessibility in AI-driven content creation. 
• Immediate results: Unlike other AI video platforms, Colossyan’s Instant Avatar feature delivers a high-quality, fully functional talking AI avatar in seconds instead of requiring hours or days of turnaround time. 
• Customizable body language: Instant avatars replicate the user’s original body language and hand gestures from the input video, adding an unparalleled level of personalization compared to other custom avatar solutions on the market. 
• Natural background retention: AI avatars will remain in the background of the input video, allowing for authentic scenario-based content. 
• Pair with a custom voice: Users can enhance their Instant Avatars with a custom voice that matches their own and translate that cloned voice to over 29 languages. 
• Translate into 70+ languages: With just a few clicks, users can localize their content by translating their Instant Avatar’s voice into more than 70 languages, making it easier than ever to tailor content to a global audience. 

Colossyan’s Instant Avatar feature is now available. To explore the full capabilities of this new tool, visit colossyan.com/instant-avatars and check how to create your Own Instant Avatar here.

About Colossyan 

Colossyan is the leading AI video platform that helps workplace learning teams create engaging and interactive content. By automating the video production process with AI avatars, text-to-speech voiceovers, and automatic translations, Colossyan allows teams to create high-quality videos at a fraction of the cost and time required of traditional video creation. Nearly 1 million videos have been created using Colossyan, and the platform is used by industry leaders across the globe, including Novartis, Paramount, Vodafone, BMW, and more. 

For Media Inquiries 

Contact SHIFT Communications at colossyan@shiftcomm.com

With text-to-speech narration that cuts down on filming, scripting, and editing time, AI avatars are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to traditional actors during the video production process. 

After all, one of the main advantages of AI avatars is the significant time and cost savings they can bring to video content creators. 

But if you’ve never used an AI avatar creator before, you might be unsure of the benefits. In this blog, we’ll walk you through the top five advantages of using an AI-generated avatar in your video content. 

What is an AI avatar?

Artificial intelligence avatars are digital representations of humans that are created using generative AI. These AI avatars can be used in several different contexts, whether for entertainment, virtual customer service representatives, or as AI actors in your educational content. 

These avatars are extremely lifelike and photorealistic, mimicking human movements, gestures, facial expressions, and even replicating a user’s voice – making them the perfect tool for simulating real-world interactions in virtual environments.

5 key AI avatar benefits

AI avatars are extremely versatile and can be used to create immersive experiences in many different contexts. You can easily create AI avatars for training videos, marketing ads, or social media promotions, to name just a few use cases. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of the top benefits that come with using AI avatars in your video content. 

1. More cost efficient 

The traditional process of creating videos can be very costly, as expenses for equipment, actors, and editing tend to quickly add up.  

One of the main AI avatar benefits is that they allow you to create content without the need for cameras or human actors, which saves you a lot of these costs. 

A free AI avatar generator can be the ideal solution for those seeking a cost-effective and innovative alternative to hiring real-life actors. When you use an AI avatar creator, you’ll simply pick the AI actor you’d like to have star in your video, add your script, and generate your video. 

2. Faster content creation 

Because artificial intelligence avatars allow you to bypass the filming process altogether, AI video tools give you the ability to create professional-quality videos in a matter of minutes. 

Colossyan’s new Instant Avatar feature, for instance, enables you to create personalized avatars by using uploaded selfies, which are processed through AI algorithms to produce unique avatars suitable for various use cases, like social media or marketing. 

Plus, tools like Colossyan are specifically designed for those with little to no prior editing experience, so the video editing interface is extremely intuitive and easy to use, allowing you to get your content off the ground quickly. 

3. Multilingual capabilities 

The process of manually creating multilingual video content is a huge hassle. If you want a video in five languages, you’ll need to write a script in each language, hire an actor who speaks the necessary languages, and create five separate videos. 

Fortunately, AI avatars can speak more than 70 languages automatically, meaning you can translate your content with just a few clicks. 

This means you no longer need to create multiple different versions of your video – simply create one video, and translate it to each language after the fact. Your video will be the exact same in every language – you can even use the same avatar with the same voice in each version. 

4. Enhances personalization 

When you hire a regular actor to star in your training content, you can’t change the way they look or sound after the fact. Sometimes, this may result in having a video that doesn’t feel personalized to every audience.

For example, maybe your video features actors with a British accent, but you need to use it for an American audience. When you use AI avatars, you can change your avatar’s accent in dialect in a single click, allowing your content to feel properly personalized. 

Plus, you can even personalize what your avatars look like if there’s a certain ethnicity, age, or profession that’s most suitable to your audience. 

Also read: ​​5 Ways to Personalize Your Video Content for Better Results

5. Ensures videos are consistent 

One of the largest downsides of hiring human actors is that they’re not always available to film additional videos in the future, which can leave your content collection feeling disjointed. 

This is especially true if your content requires frequent updates, as you may not be able to secure the same actor to refilm parts of your content, should the script need to change. 

Instead, AI avatars are “always on” actors who can star in your content at any time and be lip synced with any script you input. This means you can have the same avatar star in each of your videos to ensure uniformity across your entire content library or video series.  

How to create a talking AI avatar with Colossyan 

Colossyan is an AI video generator that uses AI avatars to create high-quality video content in minutes. 

The platform offers a diverse library of more than 150 stock avatars that you can use as talking avatars in your video content. 

Step 1: Choose a video template 

One of the fastest ways to get your AI avatar video off the ground in Colossyan is by starting with a video template. 

The tool offers dozens of templates to choose from, all with different design formats suitable to a range of use cases. 

Step 2: Select an AI avatar 

Although most templates will come with a preset avatar collection, once you begin editing your template, you’re free to choose whichever AI avatars best suit your messaging or audience. 

For example, if you’re creating health care content, you may want to customize your video with avatars who are wearing medical gear. Colossyan offers a diverse range of avatars to provide you with many different options suited to your needs. 

You can even create avatar conversations in Colossyan, enhancing your scenario-based training. Up to four avatars can appear in a single scene. 

Step 3: Add your script 

Dialogue is one of the most important parts of creating a realistic avatar. Once you’ve selected your AI actor, enter your script into the box on the left side of Colossyan’s video editing interface. 

When you generate your final video, your avatar will be lip synced with your script in the same way a human actor would recite a script during the recording process. 

💡 Pro tip: Colossyan’s AI script assistant can help you speed up the script writing process. It can help you brainstorm ideas, correct grammar, or adjust your tone of voice. 

Step 4: Generate your video 

Once you’re happy with your video draft, the final step is to generate it. After your generation is complete, you’re all set to share it with your audience. 

Check out this example of an employee onboarding video created using a Colossyan AI avatar: 

The future of AI avatars

While AI avatars are already revolutionizing the way teams across the world create their video content, there’s still a ton of opportunity for innovation in the space. 

Avatar technology is constantly improving, and it’s likely we’ll see AI avatar quality improve significantly even within the next year. 

Here are two benefits of avatars we can expect to see as avatar technology improves: 

Lifelike immersive experiences 

As generative AI continues to evolve, AI avatars are only going to become more lifelike and versatile, improving their ability to mimic human expressions, emotions, and body language. 

With improvements in immersive avatar technology, we’re sure to see real-time avatars come about in the near feature.

Just imagine being able to interact with an AI avatar customer service agent when you have a question instead of waiting on the phone. Your avatar would be able to answer all of your questions without delay – providing a truly immersive experience. 

Enhanced personalized learning 

Every AI avatar in Colossyan has the ability to speak more than 70 languages in over 600 different voices, which has already paved the way for content to be localized for specific audiences. 

As avatar quality continues to increase, we can expect to see more personalization-focused features. By lowering the barriers to the creation of custom avatars, anyone will be able to have a realistic AI avatar of themselves they can create content with, allowing them to connect with anyone in the world in a more personalized manner. 

Get started with a free AI avatar creator today 

Enough about the advantages of AI avatars – it’s time to create one for yourself. 

Colossyan is an easy-to-use platform that allows you to create AI avatar videos with no prior experience. 

You can easily get started by selecting an AI avatar from Colossyan’s library of more than 150 different options, or you can create your own avatar in minutes using Colossyan’s instant custom avatar feature. 

‍Give it a try for free today or schedule a demo with our team to learn more.

Work doesn’t always have to feel like work. That might sound overly optimistic, but it’s a practice that recognizable companies like Cisco, Microsoft, and Siemens have followed.

By applying game elements to the workplace, you can boost your teams’ engagement, motivation, and performance across the board. And by introducing game mechanics to day-to-day tasks like making cold calls or onboarding new hires, you can give your employees clear objectives and goals. 

In this article, we'll identify potential use cases and explore creating course content with interactive videos to show how you can use gamification in your organization. 

Whether your goal is to increase productivity, improve collaboration, or develop new skills among your employees, you’ll learn everything you need to know about introducing gamification into your workplace. 

What is gamification?

Before we get into the specific ways you can incorporate gamification in the workplace, it's important to understand what it is. 

Gamification refers to the use of game design elements and experiences in non-game contexts– like workplaces, education, health and fitness apps, and more. At its heart, gamification aims to leverage people's natural desires for achievements, status, competition, and meaningful rewards to motivate and engage them.

Some key game design elements that gamification incorporates include:

• Points systems that award points for desired behaviors and accomplishments
• Badges and leaderboards that publicly recognize achievements and foster friendly competition
• Levels or ranks that allow users to see their progress and strive to advance
• Challenges and quests that encourage goal-setting and completing tasks

Ultimately, the goal is to channel your employees’ intrinsic motivation so work feels more like play, as well as increase their drive to perform well and continuously improve. In the following sections, we'll explore some tried-and-true approaches to gamification that you can start implementing right away.

Gamification in the workplace: Is it effective?

The high adoption of gamification across many industries raises the question of whether it actually works. Fortunately, this isn’t just a passing fad. 

Research shows that when companies properly implement gamification, its benefits extend to both companies and their employees.

For example, a study has found that skill retention increased by a whopping 40% and employee onboarding times decreased by 90% when companies introduced gamification principles.

Employee education aside, gamification also provides powerful social benefits. The previous study also showed that gamification significantly enhances feelings of belonging, connection, and community in the workplace. Up to 87% of employees reported that gamified initiatives made them feel more socially integrated and boosted their engagement.

Of course, not all gamification efforts are equal. If you really want to see results, your initiatives must be well-designed and based on an understanding of your employees’ motivations and needs. The rewards you choose must also be meaningful, and the overall experience should be fun and engaging instead of feeling like “work.” 

When done right, however, gamification offers compelling benefits that can have an incredibly positive impact on workplace culture, performance, and job satisfaction.

Also read: How Does Gamification Improve eLearning?

Employee use cases for gamification

Anything can be a game if you introduce a few game mechanics. Here are some common ways you can successfully gamify different tasks and workflows across your organization:

Onboarding and employee training

Adding levels, quests, and virtual badges to your onboarding training can incentivize employees to complete tutorials and certifications. Offering these rewards will ensure that your new hires feel supported as they get up to speed on how your business operates.

You can also apply these principles to your product onboarding. By adding a few game mechanics and rewards, you can increase the chances that your customers will onboard fully and can even shorten their time-to-value when using your product.

Sales and customer service

Performance-based rewards are great ways to encourage friendly competition across your customer service and sales teams. Not only will gamifying these aspects make it easier to surface top performers in your company, but this kind of public recognition can also incentivize employees who may be struggling to improve.

Product development

Setting up timed challenges and team quests can optimize your company’s workflows when producing or developing new products. Some companies take this a step further by creating company-wide challenges where the winning teams receive cash-based incentives if they are able to develop a new product or feature. 

Professional development

Yes, you can even gamify your employees’ professional development! To do this, you can start by implementing a point system to encourage continuous learning across your organization. 

For example, employees could earn points by completing training courses, on-the-job learning activities, and other development opportunities. As their points increase, employees can advance to higher experience tiers. Reaching new tiers can then unlock more advanced training courses, certification programs, and rewards for completing certain levels of training.

How to incorporate gamification in the workplace

Gamification doesn’t happen by accident. If you want to successfully implement gamification initiatives, then understanding your employees is paramount. Their unique motivations and interests should dictate which game mechanics you use.

Conducting surveys is a good way to gauge your employees’ interests and understand what truly drives engagement for people across different departments. Collecting this data will help you design learning experiences that your employees will find enjoyable and worthwhile. 

Now, keep in mind that gamification is not a “set it and forget it” activity. Instead, it’s something you should constantly monitor and iterate on. 

3 steps to create gamified learning experiences

Building engaging gamification experiences for employees may seem challenging at first. However, by establishing a solid framework and placing an emphasis on intrinsic motivation, any organization can quickly create and implement effective gamification experiences.

Here are a few steps you can take to get started with your gamification strategy:

1. Clarify your objectives

First, you’ll need to figure out exactly why you want to incorporate gamification in the workplace. What outcomes are you aiming for? Is it increased productivity, higher engagement in training programs, improved teamwork, or something else? Understanding your objectives will ultimately help you craft the appropriate incentives and rewards for your participants.

Similarly, you should outline the behaviors and actions that you want to encourage among your employees. These actions will form the foundation of your gamification program.

For instance, if the goal is to enhance training participation, consider setting targets related to completing onboarding modules or ongoing learning activities. Once you and your teams align on these goals, you can break down larger goals into manageable tasks or milestones that employees can strive toward.

2. Explore various gamification approaches and methods

Once you’ve identified your program’s goals, it’s time to begin exploring various approaches. For example, you can incorporate elements like points systems, badges, or leaderboards to monitor employee performance and create some friendly competition. You may even consider offering both work-related achievements and social achievements to foster morale across your teams.

3. Leverage AI to build courses and training at scale

After you’ve figured out your goals and methods, all that’s left to do is create the content to support your gamified program. Fortunately, today’s AI tools make it easy to create gamified content at scale. 

For example, Colossyan is an AI video tool that offers SCORM export, allowing you to create engaging content with AI avatars and export it to your LMS, improving your LMS gamification. The platform also offers: 

• Multiple choice knowledge checks: Test your learners’ skill development and understanding by incorporating quizzes into your AI avatar videos. 
• Branching scenarios: Increase employee engagement while simultaneously personalizing content with “choose your own adventure” learning experiences. 

Tips for successful gamification

Once you’ve built out your gamified experiences, you’ll have everything you need to reap the rewards of gamification in the workplace. But that doesn’t mean your program will succeed by default.

While gamification seems like an easy way to improve employee engagement, effectively implementing it requires careful planning and execution. 

Here are a few helpful tips to ensure your gamification efforts successfully increase employee motivation:

Prioritize the user experience

Participating in your gamified experiences should be seamless for your employees. Any unnecessary friction can disincentivize your team members from fully engaging in these activities, which defeats the point entirely. Your game mechanics should be clear to ensure a smooth user experience. 

Focus on intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivators

Your gamified program’s goal shouldn’t be to hand out badges or gift cards. Instead, your gamification strategies should focus on fostering a sense of competency, autonomy, and purpose for learners through gameplay. With these goals in mind, make sure your rewards align with your desired behaviors rather than solely driving employee participation.

Leverage video content

Every effective game experience leverages multiple mediums to engage its participants. Video content is one of the most accessible and effective ways to deliver information, which makes it a great employee gamification strategy. Plus, your learners are more likely to retain information from a video rather than text-only material. 

Real-world examples of gamification for employees 

So what does gamification look like in the real world? Several notable companies have seen plenty of success from implementing gamified experiences across their organizations, including Cisco, Microsoft, and Siemens, to name a few.

Cisco is a perfect example of how gamifying social media training can strengthen skills in an enjoyable way. Its gamified program resembles popular titles like The Sims and League of Legends and allows sales and HR professionals to advance levels and earn team-based badges. As a result, the technology company saw increased participation and competency in reaching out to prospects on Twitter and communicating with potential candidates via LinkedIn.

In another example, Microsoft gamified its contact center training by introducing points, badges, and personalized goals to boost its agents’ morale. Due to these efforts, the company was able to drive a 12% reduction in absenteeism and a 10% increase in calls per shift, which illustrates how well-designed gamification can make difficult jobs more engaging.

Siemens took its approach even further by viewing gamification as central to engaging digital natives who are entering the workforce. As CEO Barbara Humpton noted, “We can’t expect a generation of digital natives who never experienced an analog workplace to want to go back in time. They will join us if the workspaces and tools we provide them clearly represent the future.” 

The big takeaway from Siemens's findings is that if work feels like a video game, the new generation of workers may feel more motivated and invested in their roles.

When do gamification techniques fail in the workplace? 

Increasing employee engagement is no easy task. Despite your best efforts to add gamification elements to the workplace, there may come a time when the inputs just don’t match the outputs. 

However, by understanding the common pitfalls of gamified training, you’ll be able to avoid failure and successfully implement new programs.

Let’s explore a few reasons why your game elements could fail:

1. High levels of competition: Competition should motivate employees, not frustrate them. Give everyone across your organization a chance to succeed. Otherwise, you’ll only be hurting your employee morale.
2. Stagnant experiences: Keep your gamification system fresh with new goals or challenges so it stays exciting over time.
3. A focus on extrinsic rewards: Focus on intrinsic rewards like building new skills, not just extrinsic rewards like gifts.

But keep in mind that even recognizable brands don’t always get gamification right on the first try. As seen with Disney’s gamification experience, creating mandates around completing gamified experiences without understanding your users’ needs will almost always backfire. 

Ultimately, if you want your program to drive a real impact across your organization, then you need to come up with thoughtful, empathetic gamification elements that align with both your business goals and your users’ needs.

Start creating gamified experiences with Colossyan

Building gamified experiences in the workplace isn’t cheap. When you start to factor in the development costs, you’ll begin to see just how much time, effort, and financial resources it takes to get these programs off the ground.

Fortunately, with AI video creation tools like Colossyan, this isn’t an issue.

Colossyan’s interactive video features make it easy for companies to create gamified video experiences for their teams at scale. Whether you want to create content for new sales training or employee onboarding, you can do it all with Colossyan.

Try Colossyan for free today or book a demo with our team to get started.

Imagine if you had to choose between playing your favorite game and sitting through mandatory compliance training. We could probably guess which one you’d pick. (And no, we’re not psychic.)

Most employee training programs fill a gap – you need resources on hand to train employees, but you don’t have the time to make them engaging. 

However, by integrating gamification into your learning management system (LMS), you can improve the quality of your employee training and realize massive business gains.

In this article, we’ll show you everything you need to know about LMS gamification. 

How do LMSs integrate gamification?

Because the benefits of leveraging gamification in learning have become clearer, some pioneering learning management systems have led the way in bringing gamification into their systems, namely Cornerstone OnDemand, Blackboard, and Canvas.

Cornerstone OnDemand added badges and points to its platform back in 2014. These virtual rewards provided social motivation and recognition for users who completed training modules, courses, and other assigned activities. 

Blackboard, another early experimenter, rolled out digital badges and a tangible rewards catalog in 2015. Learners accrued points for tasks like participating in discussions, taking quizzes, and accessing certain content areas. They could then redeem points in an internal company store for prizes like gift cards. Learner surveys indicated that the incentives significantly boosted their motivation to learn.

Meanwhile, Canvas launched its gamification tool in 2016 to allow clients to build their own reward systems. This allows instructors to customize badges, leaderboards, levels, and virtual currencies for specific goals.

Today, business leaders continue to find new ways to encourage gamification across their organizations – and it’s well worth the effort! Let’s dig into some of the benefits of gamification next.

The benefits of LMS gamification

Research shows that, when implemented well, gamification can yield impressive benefits for online learning via LMS platforms. 

Perhaps the most significant advantage is increased user motivation. Gamification elements tap into the brain’s reward pathways and enhance engagement by appealing to our innate desires for achievement, status, and self-expression.

A study from the National Library of Medicine even found that adding gamification to interactive online modules enhanced learning outcomes and instructional efficiency, as well as student engagement and enjoyment.

Gamification also fosters healthy competition that can strengthen learning. For example, classic gamification elements like leaderboards and public recognition for top performers engage social and competitive instincts that inspire learners to put in extra effort.

Additionally, a gamified LMS can build stronger communities as learners support and learn from each other. Game formats like collaborative quests, team leaderboards, and social sharing cultivate positive interaction and peer learning, which makes implementing gamification worth the investment.

How to start gamifying your LMS

So, how can business leaders begin incorporating gamification into their training content? Well, if you’re using an LMS or creating videos with an interactive platform like Colossyan, then you’re already halfway there.

Let’s go over some gamification elements you can put in place to realize your online training courses’ full potential:

Incentivize learning with points and badges

One of the simplest ways to introduce gamification into your corporate training is by adding game design elements, like points and badges, to your LMS. These virtual rewards keep learners engaged by allowing them to track their progress.

To set this up, first decide how learners will earn points. Will they need to complete a lesson, pass a quiz, or finish a full course? 

Once you’ve figured out how your point system will work, you’ll then want to design digital badges at different levels that will automatically unlock as learners reach certain point thresholds. For example, you might offer a bronze badge at 500 points and silver at 1,000. 

Be sure to display the current amount of points and unlocked badges on your earners’ profiles so they can track their achievements and compare them with their peers. This small change can transform dull training courses into engaging challenges.

Add interactive quizzes to your content

Gamification isn’t just about rewards – it’s also about making the learning process more engaging and user-friendly. You can do this by incorporating interactive elements into your online courses. 

For example, adding multiple-choice knowledge checks throughout your content modules can help break up your content and check learner understanding along the way. 

Video platforms like Colossyan allow you to create videos with these interactive quizzes in scene, and then transfer these videos to your LMS via SCORM export. 

Adding these types of game design elements to your LMS will make your learning program feel more like a video game than a mandatory training program.

Foster competition with leaderboards

Leaderboards are another classic gamification strategy for motivating employees through friendly competition. We like to call this “social learning” because it turns your learning environment into more of a social experience than a traditional learning and development program.

Here’s how you can set this up: In your LMS dashboard, create a public leaderboard to showcase the top point-earners or those who’ve achieved the most badges. You can also create smaller leaderboards at the department or team level. These leaderboards encourage learners to check in more often and strive to improve their rankings.

Be sure to incentivize participation, not perfection. Doing so will result in a much better learner experience in the long term because it will allow users to focus on their own learning paths (and get rid of any unnecessary performance anxiety).

Incorporate branching scenarios 

Branching scenarios – also known as the “choose your own adventure” style of content – are a great way to create learning experiences based on real-life scenarios. 

Although some LMS tools do support branching, creating branching videos in Colossyan is easier and takes a fraction of the time. 

In Colossyan, you can design an interaction between avatars that ends in a decision. From there, you can prompt your viewer to choose a course of action, which they will then watch play out, depending on their decision. 

‍

Not only are branching scenarios more engaging than a traditional video, but they also provide a place for your viewers to practice their decision-making skills in a low-risk learning environment. 

Use cases best suited for LMS gamification 

Now that we’ve shown you how to get started with your own gamified LMS, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of when you might add gamified elements to your learning platform.

The following examples will dive deeper into how gamification can enhance learning across common business functions. You can use these as starting points to brainstorm ideas and then tailor them to your unique needs. 

Also read: What Is eLearning Gamification? 3 Key Tips for Success

Compliance training

Compliance training is an area that’s well-suited for gamified learning. (It’s not exactly the most exciting subject, after all.)

With a gamified training program, employees could receive one point for every compliance module they complete in the LMS. 

Entire departments could also compete in an ongoing “compliance cup” challenge, where the company would celebrate the first team to achieve a target completion rate of 90%. Making compliance training into a friendly competition by leveraging points, badges, and interdepartmental challenges could significantly boost learner engagement and knowledge retention.

Employee onboarding 

The onboarding process for new hires is another prime opportunity to bring your LMS to the next level through gamification. With a gamified LMS, new employees might earn five points simply by completing their very first day of training and orientation and an additional three points for finishing their second day. 

This structure also incentivizes completing onboarding content. Furthermore, departments might earn a single point each time one of their team members helps an onboarding buddy, which could create a healthy competition to be the most welcoming employee in a department or team. 

Soft skills training

When it comes to incorporating gamification into your soft skills learning initiatives, interactive weekly challenges are a great template to use. 

A “communication challenge” could provide employees with hypothetical speaking or writing prompts to respond to through the LMS. Their peers would then grade each submission’s quality and clarity, as well as the demonstrated empathy, and award up to five points and the “Voice of the Company” badge to the top entries.

Not only would this get the entire team invested in the training, but it also makes an otherwise dull type of learning experience more interesting.

Customer service training

As far as gamifying your customer service training goes, simulated situations in your LMS could present employees with realistic customer scenarios and track their responses to determine if they’re following best practices.

Employees could receive points on a scale of one to five depending on how well they handle issues. This type of training is great for branching, as your customer service representatives can practice their customer interactions before they enter the real world. 

Sales training

For sales training, roleplaying scenarios are a classic example of gamified learning that can encourage active participation while also facilitating skill acquisition. 

When practicing their skills through simulated sales calls or client meetings, your sales reps could earn between one and five points for handling common objections, depending on how well they perform and the objections’ difficulty. 

Teams could also compete in periodic “Sales Sprints,” where the first to achieve their quarterly targets as a unit could earn a reward like an all-expenses-paid lunch outing. Additionally, public leaderboards could track top individual performers, who could be rewarded with extra client prospects, box seats at a popular sporting event, or a greater end-of-year bonus.

How to keep your gamified content relevant long term

While leaderboards and badges can initially boost excitement for learning modules, what do you do when the novelty wears off?

To prevent your gamified content from going stale, it’s important to plan for your learning program’s continuous evolution and refinement. Employees’ needs and interests will change as they take on new roles, so the learning experience needs to adapt accordingly.

Here are a few strategies you can use to maintain long-term user engagement with gamification in the workplace:

Create custom video content

One effective way to maintain long-term engagement is by creating custom video modules for your gamified training program. Instructional videos can be a highly engaging medium for learners and are great for gamified learning programs.

The easiest way to create video content is by leveraging AI to do so. AI video platforms like Colossyan allow you to easily create engaging text-to-speech videos by leveraging AI presenters. 

AI can help protect your long-term investment in gamified content by making it easier to update your content. Instead of having to reshoot your video footage when your material changes, simply update your avatar’s script and regenerate your video. That’s it!  

Rotate challenges regularly

Another best practice is to avoid reusing the same point-earning activities, time-based sprints, or team competitions indefinitely. You should introduce fresh challenges every few months that encourage exploring different areas of the LMS. 

Personalize where possible

You should also leverage user data to tailor content recommendations, automatically enroll individuals in relevant challenges, or create personalized learning paths. 

Ultimately, gamification works best when you tailor content for your employees rather than providing only a one-size-fits-all approach. Tap into AI’s capabilities as well to more efficiently enhance personalization.

Create gamified learning content at scale with Colossyan

You may think that you don’t have the time, budget, or bandwidth to create a gamification system for your employees. 

But with interactive video platforms like Colossyan, you can use AI to create gamified content for a fraction of the cost and effort. 

With branching scenarios and multiple choice quizzes, Colossyan gives you the tools you need to write, produce, and publish gamified training videos, which you can then embed within your LMS via SCORM export. 

‍Try Colossyan for free today. Or, book a demo with our team of experts to learn more.