What Digital Employees Look Like and What They Do

There are three main types of digital employees that exist in the market today:

1. The Image of a Human on a Screen, Clearly Generated: Typical digital employees can literally be bought off the shelf today; for example, they are sold on Alibaba. Developers claim that digital employees form an emotional connection through the appearance, voice, and personality of a real person. However, they are obviously perceived as digital and more closely resemble characters from 3D animated films. These employees are offered for tasks such as interacting with customers, selling and providing support, conducting online training, or commenting on streams, such as sports events.

2. The Image of a Human on a Screen, Completely Realistic: This is the next step in the evolution of digital employees. A prime example is Aitana Lopez, a model generated by the Spanish design agency The Clueless using artificial intelligence. The agency manages Aitana's social media accounts, which have hundreds of thousands of followers, some of whom do not realize that she does not exist in reality. Various brands approach the agency and use Aitana for advertising their products, allowing the digital model to earn around $10,000 per month.

3. Humanoid Robots: These robots walk around the office, perform routine tasks, and interact with employees. An example is Mika, the "experimental CEO" of the Polish beverage company Dictador.

The cost of a digital employee for a company depends heavily on their type and functionality. For example, in the Chinese technology company Baidu, which develops virtual employees, the cost ranges from $2,800 to $14,300 per year.

Who Will They Replace

Discussions about whether artificial intelligence will work alongside humans in companies have been ongoing for a long time, with a particular focus on whom it will replace first: blue-collar or white-collar workers. Interestingly, there seems to be a trend towards replacing not simple laborers but managers. These are the most expensive employees for companies, so theoretically, replacing them is extremely cost-effective—if not entirely, then at least part of their functionality. Digital managers are quite capable of handling communications, making decisions, assessing risks, and ensuring unbiased and efficient job allocation.

In 2017, Chinese entrepreneur and Alibaba founder Jack Ma stated, "In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of Time Magazine as the best CEO."

Indeed, pilot digital company directors are already being created today, and they are quite successful. For example, Mika, the previously mentioned robot, is the CEO of the Dictador company. She regularly speaks to journalists and has been named an honorary professor at Collegium Humanum University in Warsaw. Her first decree in office was the NFT tokenization of rum, which instantly brought the company $25,000. Even if there is a high degree of PR in such appointments and not all the director's functions are fully implemented, a complete replacement is quite conceivable in the foreseeable future.

Another question is whether people are ready for AI-generated managers. Surprisingly, it seems they are: a recent study by the American company edX showed that 47% of respondents believe that all the responsibilities of a CEO can be performed by AI. These are impressive numbers—almost half of Americans are ready to take orders from AI.

What to Prepare For

If such changes once seemed like a hypothetical situation from a distant future, today digital employees are already an objective reality. Does this mean that we should fear them and shut ourselves off from new technologies? Are robots taking our jobs? Let's reflect on an example.

When ChatGPT first began to spread widely, there were constant discussions about it displacing all professions related to writing texts: PR specialists, copywriters, journalists. In fact, the demand for people capable of writing good texts has not disappeared, but many of them have started using ChatGPT to automate their daily tasks. For example, it can be used to reformat text—from a column to a press release or a social media post: what used to take several hours to do manually can now be done in half an hour.

When encountering new technologies, we face a choice: either fear and deny them, or try to "ride" them. The future belongs to those who can either compete with digital workers, create them, or cooperate and complement each other. To do this, one must be prepared to acquire new skills.

Nevertheless, there are complex ethical questions related to the consequences of introducing digital employees: will it lead to unemployment and social instability? These aspects are currently being discussed at the legislative level in Europe, and laws are being enacted for the ethical use of AI.

Challenges for Business

The development of the digital employee market creates new challenges for businesses. Companies that understand the importance of technology and strive to actively use it should already be moving towards an appropriate organizational structure. This structure looks like this: only key people remain in the team, new digital employees are introduced, and all other functions are outsourced and outstaffed. It is necessary to prepare employees—constantly enhancing their leadership qualities and ability to work in the new structure and with new technologies.

Moreover, there are already many solutions in this area, and new developments appear every day. Therefore, companies need to monitor and navigate existing technologies: where to invest, what to focus on, and which functions to delegate to digital employees first.

It may seem that the implementation of digital employees is not happening very actively. Indeed, today, creating a full-fledged AI manager would be within the reach of only one or two large technology companies, as it requires significant financial investments and a huge amount of data. According to some experts, China is leading in this field, where technological leadership has been developed over the years, and the production of digital employees is already in full swing.

Good or Evil

We believe that digital employees will become part of the sharing economy culture in the near future. Let’s explain with a simple everyday example: taxis. A few years ago, apps emerged, and we started reducing our expenses by comparing prices and choosing tariffs. Recently, a new option for automated carpooling has become available: two people with similar routes can book one car and save on the trip.

Something similar will happen as AI develops: digital employees will be used jointly by companies, and thanks to standard interfaces and open protocols, it will be easy to share and develop services. As a result, companies will be able to optimize personnel costs and, in the long run, potentially bring them to zero. But for this to happen, preparation must start now, and companies must radically change their organizational structures. Whether to shut themselves off from modern technologies or use them to their advantage is always up to a company.