IBM, Amazon, Deloitte, DXC, and Accenture are partnering with digital human experts at UneeQ to push the advance and ongoing adoption of advanced conversational AI, according to a recent press release. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has found its way into a wide spectrum of human experiences -- from routine transactions to meaningful, life-changing events. Soon it may be hard to tell where organic interactions end and AI features begin. Digital humans are AI-powered life-like virtual beings that exist both in the real world and online, helping customers and businesses worldwide. A leap beyond standard chatbots, they even look like us, and are becoming a trend among major companies.

"Roman" and I haven't exchanged words for about 10 seconds, but you wouldn't know it from the look on his face. This artificially intelligent avatar, a product of New Zealand-based Soul Machines, is supposed to offer human-like interaction by simulating the way our brains handle conversation. Roman can interpret facial expressions, generate expressions of his own, and converse on a variety of topics--making him what Soul Machines calls a "digital hero." Right now, though, Roman is glitching, stuck in a routine of blinking, furrowing his eyebrows, and twisting his mouth into a polite half-smile. Moments ago, he'd asked me what music I would beam into deep space if I were in charge of NASA, but my answer--the seminal modern jazz fusion tune "Lingus" by Snarky Puppy, of course--seems to have caught him off guard.

The term "uncanny valley" refers to that unsettling feeling you get when looking at an android that has been made to appear human. Of course, the problem goes away when we can make robots that are indistinguishable from humans. A paper published last week by New Yawk University claims that "bots are more efficient than humans at certain human-machine interactions, but only if they are allowed to hide their non-human nature." In other words, once we're past that whole uncanny valley problem, we're better served letting people think they're interacting with a human when in fact it's just artificial intelligence perfected. This raises a very important question.

Global management firm Boston Consulting Group has just employed a'digital human' as an advisor to its internal teams. 'Miku' the digital employee under training, however, had her first public interaction on stage. This was at the recent IBM THINK in Sydney, where BCG managing director Miguel Carrasco showed how Miku is working with BCG's PTO (Predictability, Teaming and Openness) facilitators. "I help the PTO coaches to support teams by giving advice on work-life balance issues and sharing our top tips on project management," explains Miku. She then asks Carrasco, "Speaking of which, have you had a busy week? I can set up a few reminders on your calendar to prioritise some downtime."