“What is the latest news, Avatar Pavel?” - AI assistants in transformation processes of metaverse
Václav Moravec, Beáta Gavurová, Martin Rigelský · Computers in Human Behavior Artificial Humans · 2025
The main goal of the study was to examine and to evaluate the relationships between public attitudes towards AI avatars, their selected socio-demographic characteristics, fields of their media consumption, as well as ideological attitudes in order to reveal other adoption perspectives of AI avatars, which are not yet explored, and their strong economic and social potential in the metaverse. The data collection was carried out on a sample of 1,250 respondents aged 18 and over in the period from 2 April 2025 to 9 April 2025. The research used an AI avatar experimentally developed by the start-up company The MAMA AI. The outcomes of the descriptive analysis confirmed the fact that the AI news avatar Pavel was perceived rather neutrally to slightly positively, but as impersonal, with respondents demonstrating a low willingness to accept him as a guide across the media. The respondents also evaluated the use of AI assistants most favourably in the technical-service fields, but significantly more negatively in the sensitive domains such as psychology or politics. The differences between these groups were most noticeable in the perception of the AI avatar as more or less human and intimate, especially between men and women. Contrariwise, media habits played a much larger role. The study confirmed the importance of investigating specific adoption factors related to media consumption, media habits, and ideological attitudes along with the socio-demographic factors and thus, allowed us to understand the new adoption potential of AI avatars and the possibilities of its expansion. • 3D avatars have increasingly impacted our personal and professional life. • It is necessary to look for new adoption potential of avatars in a metaverse. • Socio-demographic factors of avatars adoption are insufficient. • Missing research on avatar adoption in relation to media consumption. • Development of technological literacy of the population is necessary in a metaverse. • Avatars will be a significant part of the country's technological development.