This summer, a team of students with xLab built and deployed an innovative AI Avatar Kiosk, a first-of-its-kind digital engagement system. The kiosk allows visitors—whether prospective students, parents, or industry partners—to interact with lifelike AI “digital twins” of Weatherhead School of Management professors.
Instead of connecting to a live call, users are greeted by an AI-generated video stream and voice clone of the professor. Behind the scenes, a serverless architecture powers real-time content generation, drawing on the professor’s past publications, lectures, and courses. This ensures the avatar not only looks and sounds authentic but also speaks with the professor’s expertise and style.
The system includes three major components: a kiosk interface with video and voice avatars, a content generation engine enhanced by retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for contextual accuracy, and a backstage management platform enabling easy onboarding of additional professors. The team also incorporated analytics and chat history features to measure engagement and improve responses over time.
By blending cutting-edge AI with faculty expertise, the AI Avatar Kiosk is designed to strengthen connections between Weatherhead and the broader community—making faculty knowledge more accessible while showcasing the school’s commitment to innovation.