This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Imagine losing your credit card, logging into your bank's website for help and being greeted by a virtual customer service representative who looks and sounds exactly like actor Hugh Jackman. The person helping you isn't actually the Hollywood star—it's his AI-powered digital twin.
And new research suggests that familiar face could significantly improve how you perceive your customer service experience. "When people see the familiar face of a famous person they like, there's a halo effect," said Lingyao (Ivy) Yuan, associate professor of information systems and business analytics in Iowa State University's Ivy College of Business. "The positive feelings they have about that person can carry over to how they view the service, even before it begins." In a study published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Yuan and her co-authors examined a growing technology trend known as "Celebrity-as-a-Service," an approach in which companies use AI-powered or human-operated digital replicas of celebrities to interact directly with customers.
"We found customers may be more trusting of a service, more willing to use it and even more forgiving of mistakes when a virtual representative resembles a celebrity they already know and like," Yuan said. Yuan said the study's findings also offer a glimpse into a future where AI-powered "digital humans" become a routine part of everyday business. "We're moving toward a world where interactions with digital humans will be increasingly common," Yuan said.
"The question isn't just whether the technology works. It's how people respond to it and how those responses shape the decisions they make." Customers have long seen celebrities endorsing products in commercials and advertisements, but digital twins take that idea much further, Yuan said. "Instead of appearing in a one-way marketing campaign, a celebrity's digital likeness can interact with customers in real time, answer their questions, solve problems and complete transactions," Yuan said.
To examine how everyday customers react to digital twins, Yuan collaborated with fellow researchers Antino Kim, associate professor of information systems at Indiana University; Mike Seymour, a researcher in digital innovation at the University of Sydney; and Alan R. Dennis, distinguished professor of information systems and the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems at Indiana University.
The team's question was simple: If two digital customer service representatives provide the same help, does it matter whether one looks like a celebrity? To find out, the researchers created a digital prototype, in compliance with U.S. fair use law for research, using technology that placed actor Jackman's face onto a digital representative. Yuan said Jackman was selected because he combined high name recognition with a largely positive public image, and his diverse career across film, television and theater made him familiar to a wide range of participants.
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