Why Human Hosts Still Outsell AI Streamers in Online Shopping

Human Streamers Still Outperform Digital Ones

A new study from the UBC Sauder School of Business shows that AI-powered "digital streamers"—virtual salespeople who appear in livestreams to promote products—don't perform as well as human streamers. In fact, they barely outperform having no streamer at all.

"People assume that if businesses are using digital streamers, they must be doing well. But they aren't, at least not in their current incarnation," said UBC Sauder associate professor Dr. Yanwen Wang, a co-author of the study in the journal Information Systems Research.

The research team looked at sales data from a popular fashion retailer on Tmall.com, one of the world's largest e-commerce platforms. They compared sales of 328 products before and after the retailer introduced digital streamers. Of those, 72 were promoted by digital streamers, 74 by human streamers, and 182 had no streamer at all.

Clear Advantage for Human Sales Hosts

The results were clear: Human streamers significantly boosted sales. Digital streamers, on the other hand, showed only a slight improvement over having no streamer—and far less than their human counterparts.

But the researchers didn't stop there. They wanted to understand why digital streamers were falling short and how they could be improved.

Testing Ways to Improve Digital Streamers

In the second part of the study, they collaborated with a new online grocery retailer on Tmall that also utilized digital streamers. The team tested different versions of the streamers, starting with a basic, cartoon-like avatar and gradually adding features to make them appear more human, such as realistic voices and the ability to answer questions in real-time.

They found that two factors made the most significant difference: form realism (how human the streamer appears) and behavioral realism (how well the streamer interacts with viewers).

Real-Time Interaction Drives Sales

The most effective upgrade was giving the digital streamer the ability to answer questions in real time. This feature led to a 25-per-cent increase in the number of products sold and an 86-per-cent jump in revenue. Adding a lottery feature—where viewers could win prizes during the livestream—also helped, boosting sales by 17 percent and revenue by 70 percent.

"Human-like voices and improved visual appearances also contributed to gains, but to a lesser degree," said Dr. Wang. "Only enhanced real-time Q&A interactions allowed the digital streamers to achieve sales performances on par with human streamers."

This suggests that timely and interactive engagement is key to driving sales.

The Future: Human-AI Collaboration?

Dr. Wang suggests that the best future approach may be a combination of human and AI. For example, a human could monitor several AI streamers simultaneously, stepping in to answer questions as needed.

Digital streamers do have one big advantage: cost. Unlike humans, they can livestream 24 hours a day without breaks or salaries. But businesses need to understand what works and what doesn't before relying on them.

"When businesses are choosing digital streamers, they hope they'll work as well as human streamers," said Dr. Wang. "But our study shows there's no lift in sales at all—unless you improve how they interact with customers."

The study is the first to provide real-world evidence on how digital streamers impact sales and how their design can be improved. It was co-authored by Dr. Wang, Dr. Yahui Liu of Nanjing Audit University, Dr. Shuai Yang of Donghua University, and Dr. Lei Wang of Indiana University.