Google Adds Animated Avatars to Gemini 3.8 Live

Google has announced Live Avatar, a feature for Gemini 3.8 Live that pairs spoken AI responses with a generated animated persona. The company says the feature is intended for enterprise use, including customer service, reception, employee training and other interactions with customers. Live Avatar combines Gemini’s real-time speech capabilities with low-latency video generation. The avatar’s mouth movements are synchronized with its spoken responses, and Google says it can use facial expressions during conversations. The feature is designed to give businesses a visual interface for voice-based AI interactions; the reports do not establish how widely organizations will deploy it or how it performs in routine use. Organizations can choose from a library of preset avatars or create customized ones based on reference images, according to Google. Custom designs can reflect a company’s branding, including logos or clothing. One account specified that custom avatars require enterprise allowlisting, while the broader availability details were not consistently described.