UneeQ avatars: building digital humans for customer service

Digital humans are making waves in customer experience, with brands exploring new ways to connect through AI-driven interactions.

UneeQ avatars—building digital humans for customer service—is one prominent approach.

This article provides an objective overview of UneeQ’s stated capabilities and contrasts them with Tavus’s documented offering. Service teams can use this comparison to assess fit based on goals, implementation needs, and measurable outcomes.

Introduction: UneeQ Avatars in Customer Service

AI-powered digital humans are gaining traction for support, onboarding, and training. UneeQ positions its “digital humans” as lifelike, interactive avatars designed for business communication and simulations.

Service teams evaluating this space also consider platforms like Tavus, which delivers real-time, interactive AI humans with lifelike presence and a broader, end-to-end system for perception, conversation, and action—plus a complementary video generation product.

Why This Matters Now

Support organizations need to scale high-quality, human-feeling interactions across channels and time zones.

Digital humans and AI video agents can help teams offer consistent, on-brand experiences—whether guiding users through complex tasks, delivering product education, or simulating service training scenarios.

Real-World Deployments: UneeQ Digital Humans in Action

UneeQ’s digital humans have been deployed across a diverse range of industries, providing tangible value in real-world customer service settings.

For example:

• Qatar Airways introduced Sama 2.0, an immersive conversational AI built on UneeQ’s platform, to elevate its customer experience both online and in lounges.
• The City of Amarillo leveraged multilingual UneeQ digital humans to improve access to local government information and services, making it easier for residents to find answers and complete tasks in their preferred language.
• In retail, Kiehl’s launched “Eve,” a digital skincare advisor capable of delivering personalized product recommendations and guidance.
• Noel Leeming implemented “Nola,” a store assistant who helps customers navigate electronics purchases.
• In the financial sector, InstaMortgage’s “Rachel” simplifies complex mortgage topics through one-on-one digital conversations.
• UBS uses a UneeQ-powered digital human to provide clients with a new way to initiate meaningful financial discussions.
• Healthcare organizations have also benefited, with Maya MD offering empathetic, AI-driven patient support.

These deployments highlight UneeQ’s flexibility in addressing customer service, sales, onboarding, and education needs across sectors.

Two Approaches at a Glance

• UneeQ: Builds lifelike, interactive avatars (“digital humans”) for customer-facing support and employee training scenarios, with SDKs/APIs for deployment and a Sales Trainer for role-play.
• Tavus: An AI research lab building AI humans—video-first, real-time, interactive agents with lifelike presence that see, interpret, converse, and take action. Tavus provides an end-to-end multimodal pipeline for face rendering, perception, and natural turn-taking, as well as a Video Generation product for scripted content at scale.

UneeQ: Features and Capabilities (From Published Materials)

Digital Human Avatars

• Designs and creates realistic digital human avatars
• Supports interactive virtual avatars for business communication

Sales Training and Simulation

• Provides AI-driven sales roleplay practice via UneeQ Sales Trainer

Integrations and Deployment

• Offers APIs for integrating digital humans into applications and channels
• Provides software development kits (SDKs) for building and deploying experiences

Case Studies: Measurable Outcomes and Customer Feedback

UneeQ’s client case studies demonstrate measurable improvements in customer engagement and operational efficiency.

For instance:

• Qatar Airways reported that Sama 2.0 contributed to higher customer satisfaction scores and more efficient handling of routine inquiries.
• The City of Amarillo observed increased accessibility and positive feedback from residents using the digital human for government services.
• Kiehl’s noted that their digital assistant “Eve” helped drive personalized product discovery, supporting both online and in-store experiences.
• Hopeworks, an organization focused on career development, utilized UneeQ’s platform to provide job interview training, resulting in fairer, more scalable preparation for job seekers.

These examples illustrate how UneeQ’s digital humans can be tailored to specific business objectives, delivering both qualitative and quantitative benefits.

Tavus: Capabilities Documented for Customer Experience

Tavus is building AI humans—video-first agents with lifelike presence that can see, hear, interpret, converse, and act.

Core Interaction and Realism

• Real-time, interactive AI humans with sub 1 second latency
• Market-leading face rendering via Phoenix-3 (full-face animation, micro-expressions, pixel-perfect lip sync, identity preservation)
• Natural, human-like conversational flow via Sparrow-0 (intelligent turn-taking, optimized response timing)
• Visual perception via Raven-0 (contextual understanding of user expressions, environment, and multi-channel inputs like screen sharing)

Programmability and Control

• Objectives & Guardrails to drive conversations toward measurable outcomes while staying safe, compliant, and on-brand
• Function calling so agents can take meaningful action
• Bring your own LLM support
• Knowledge Base (RAG) for accurate, up-to-date information retrieval, with responses arriving in ~30 ms (up to 15× faster than other solutions)
• Memories for persistent context across sessions

Deployment and Integration

• End-to-end multimodal pipeline; white-labeled endpoints, webhooks, and robust SDKs
• 1080p video; 30+ languages
• SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance available on applicable plans
• Stock replica library (100+ replicas), custom replica training, and professionally optimized replicas

Ethics and Trust

• Ethical AI Replicas with consent mechanisms to safeguard personal identity
• Automated content moderation and bias mitigation practices
• Transparent policies and privacy by default
• Video-first agents that disclose themselves, respect user consent, and protect personal data

Complementary Video Generation

• Video Generation product to create scripted videos with AI digital twins
• Documented use cases include transforming help articles into video, scalable sales outreach, and personalized landing-page experiences

Customer Service Use Cases Supported by Tavus

• Customer support agents with human-like presence across websites and kiosks
• Technical troubleshooting where visual perception is helpful
• Onboarding education and guided walkthroughs
• Training and role-play simulations
• In-person style concierge and kiosk experiences (e.g., hotel check-in)

Proof of Engagement

“Since integrating Tavus’s face-to-face video agents into Final Round AI, we’ve seen candidates stick with their mock interviews 42% longer and complete 35% more practice sessions. There’s something about looking a human-like interviewer in the eye—reading subtle expressions and getting instant, nuanced feedback—that turbo-charges engagement in a way plain audio never could.”
— Priya Natarajan, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Final Round AI

UneeQ Pricing, Licensing, and Implementation

For organizations considering UneeQ, understanding the practical aspects of deployment is essential.

UneeQ offers flexible pricing and licensing models tailored to enterprise needs, with options for both subscription-based and usage-based plans. Pricing typically depends on the number of digital humans, interaction volume, and the level of customization required.

UneeQ provides a guided onboarding process that includes solution scoping, avatar design, and integration support. Technical implementation involves deploying UneeQ’s APIs and SDKs within existing digital channels, with timelines varying based on complexity.

• Simple deployments can be completed in weeks
• More customized solutions may require additional time for avatar creation and integration

UneeQ’s team collaborates closely with clients to ensure seamless integration. Resources such as documentation, training, and dedicated support are available throughout the rollout. This approach is designed to minimize technical barriers and accelerate time to value for customer service teams.

UneeQ vs. Tavus: What to Evaluate

Experience Model

• UneeQ: Interactive, real-time avatars embedded in digital properties for live customer and employee interactions, plus simulation for training.
• Tavus: Real-time, interactive AI humans with lifelike presence powered by Phoenix-3 (face rendering), Raven-0 (perception), and Sparrow-0 (turn-taking). Tavus also offers a Video Generation product for scripted content at scale (e.g., help articles to video).

Perception and Context

• Tavus: Raven-0 provides contextual visual perception (emotion and intent in natural language, ambient awareness, multi-channel understanding) and can trigger function calls on specified gestures, objects, or behaviors.

Conversation Dynamics

• Tavus: Sparrow-0 adapts to tone, rhythm, and pacing for fluid, human-like turn-taking with optimized latency.

Governance and Safety

• UneeQ: Provides APIs/SDKs for controlled deployments and training simulations (per published materials).
• Tavus: Offers Objectives & Guardrails, consent and identity safeguards, data privacy by default, and compliance options (SOC 2, HIPAA where applicable).

Time to Value

• UneeQ: Teams plan conversational designs and integrations via APIs/SDKs (per published materials).
• Tavus: End-to-end pipeline, white-labeled APIs, and Persona Builder for fast configuration; Knowledge Base (RAG) and Memories reduce manual context engineering; plug-and-play model choices.

Evaluation Checklist

Pilot Scope and KPIs

• Choose a clear, high-value service flow (e.g., onboarding education, support triage, training simulation)
• Track session length, completion rates, CSAT/NPS, and resolution outcomes

Technical Requirements

• Confirm API, webhooks, and SDK fit with your stack
• Define Knowledge Base needs (documents, URLs, retrieval strategy)
• Consider function calling and tool integrations

Conversation and Safety Controls

• Specify Objectives & Guardrails for brand, compliance, and outcomes
• Establish consent workflows and replica governance
• Set bias review and auditing checkpoints

Data and Privacy

• Map data flows, logging, and retention policies
• Confirm compliance needs (e.g., SOC 2, HIPAA where applicable)

Choosing Fit Based on Goals

• Consider UneeQ if you need interactive digital human avatars and sales/service training simulations delivered via APIs/SDKs and a Sales Trainer module.
• Consider Tavus if you need lifelike, real-time AI humans with visual perception, natural turn-taking, and face rendering in a single system; if you want structured objectives and guardrails, tool/action orchestration, rapid retrieval from your Knowledge Base, and options to bring your own LLM; and if you also plan to complement live experiences with scripted video generation at scale.

Next Steps

• Run a focused pilot that mirrors a real service moment
• Validate integration paths with vendor solution teams
• Stand up governance and measurement from day one
• Iterate based on user feedback and performance data

By aligning your selection to documented capabilities, deployment needs, and safety requirements, you’ll put the right human-like interface to work—whether that’s UneeQ’s interactive avatars, Tavus’s real-time AI humans and video generation, or both in a complementary model.

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