China's AI avatars drive new wave of livestreaming e-commerce

Imagine creating a digital livestreaming host that looks, sounds and interacts just like you — all in just a few simple steps. Based in Beijing E-Town, Chinese AI company Johnsmith.ai is redefining the way brands engage with global audiences — one digital avatar at a time.

Imagine creating a digital livestreaming host that looks, sounds and interacts just like you — all in just a few simple steps. Based in Beijing E-Town, Chinese AI company Johnsmith.ai is redefining the way brands engage with global audiences — one digital avatar at a time.

In just a few simple steps, it is now possible to create an AI digital livestreaming host that looks, sounds and interacts just like you. Johnsmith.ai, a Chinese enterprise, launched its digital human livestreaming journey in 2022 when it debuted 38 digital livestream rooms on JD.com.

In less than three years, the company has delivered an impressive performance: helping clients achieve a gross merchandise value of over $500 million, with its products and services reaching more than 20 million consumers worldwide.

While introducing his company at the Xinchuang Park in Beijing E-Town, Li Shizun, CEO of Johnsmith.ai, stated: "We started developing this product in the second half of 2021. The main reason for our R&D efforts was that livestreaming was extremely labor-intensive. A host would talk for hours — their throat would be exhausted after just one session."

"Moreover, livestreaming work is highly repetitive. We believe that AI has a significant advantage in such tasks, as it can fully replace many repetitive jobs," Li said. "Our costs are probably only 1% of those of human-hosted livestreaming."

Jia Weilin, a host from Beijing Radio and Television Station, creates her own digital avatar for livestreaming e-commerce using Johnsmith.ai's product at the Xinchuang Park in Beijing E-Town, June 17, 2025. [Photo by Yang Chuanli/China.org.cn]

More importantly, the company's digital avatars are extremely similar to real anchors, not only able to taste and try on products, but also interact with viewers in real time based on their questions, and even enable dual-digital anchor live broadcasts.

In terms of global cooperation, Johnsmith.ai has established in-depth partnerships with several international e-commerce giants. Through collaborations with companies like JD.com and Taobao, it is exploring new models of digital human livestreaming e-commerce and driving the digital upgrading of these platforms.

The company serves more than 500 well-known domestic and international brands. It is also the exclusive generative AI provider for the LVMH Group, and provides services for other renowned companies including Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, Procter & Gamble, and Nestle.

According to Li, Johnsmith.ai leverages the Qwen large language models developed by Alibaba. "The models we design fall into three main categories: those related to appearance, voice and text," he explained. "We independently develop the appearance and voice models, while for text-related capabilities, we rely on Qwen."