Like most newsreaders, Zae-In wears a microphone pinned to her collar and clutches a stack of notes – but unlike most, her face is entirely fake. A "virtual human" designed by South Korean artificial intelligence company Pulse9, Zae-In spent five months this year reading live news bulletins on national broadcaster SBS. That, you might think, is it then. To adapt the words of another animated newscaster: "I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords." The world belongs to the artificially intelligent and the News at Ten will never be the same again.

Her face is a deepfake. Her body belongs to a team of similar-sized actors. But she sings, reads the news, and sells luxury clothes on TV as AI humans go mainstream in South Korea. Meet Zaein, one of South Korea's most active virtual humans, who was created by Pulse9, an artificial intelligence company that is working to bring corporate dreams of the perfect employee to life. Pulse9 has created digital humans for some of South Korea's largest conglomerates, including Shinsegae, with research indicating the global market for such life-like creations could reach $527 billion by 2030.