Human-like AI avatars for realistic customer and employee experiences
Soul Machines is a provider of autonomously animated, emotionally responsive digital humans for customer service, training, and brand engagement; it suits enterprises needing live conversational avatars with centralized cloud deployment and bespoke integrations, and its pricing is enterprise-focused with custom quotes and no widely advertised low-cost self-serve plan.
Soul Machines builds lifelike, emotionally responsive digital humans (AI avatars) that speak, listen, and display facial expressions in real time. The platform specializes in embedding conversational AI into web, kiosk, and video channels with synchronized speech, eye contact, and micro-expressions to improve engagement. Soul Machines’ key differentiator is its Digital Brain architecture that models autonomous facial behavior and drives empathetic interactions, aimed primarily at enterprises in customer service, healthcare, and training. Pricing is enterprise-oriented and typically requires contacting sales; there is no broad free tier for production use, making access more restricted than self-serve avatar tools.
Soul Machines is a New Zealand-founded company (founded 2016) that produces autonomous digital humans—animated AI avatars that perceive, speak, and emote in real time. Positioning itself at the intersection of CGI, behavioral science, and conversational AI, Soul Machines markets its Digital People to enterprises wanting highly realistic, brand-safe human interfaces. The core value proposition is delivering sustained, stateful interactions that show facial micro-expressions, head movement, gaze, and synchronized lip sync tied to a Digital Brain that orchestrates behaviors rather than simple lip-synced video playback.
The platform’s key features include the Digital Brain runtime (the behavior engine that models attention, emotion, and task flows), the Face Editor and Animator (high-fidelity character creation with rigging and expression controls), and integrations for conversational AI and speech. The Digital Brain exposes APIs to manage dialog state, memory, and emotion scoring so avatars can reference past interactions. Soul Machines supports real-time audio input/output with text-to-speech and speech-to-text pipelines, and offers web SDKs and embeddable clients for browser, kiosk, and video-call contexts. It also provides analytics for engagement and session logging, plus enterprise tooling for content moderation and regulatory compliance.
Soul Machines does not publish mass-market monthly prices; its commercial model is enterprise-focused with custom quotations. Historically customers engage via pilot projects and paid deployments; costs depend on avatar count, concurrent sessions, deployment scale, and integration complexity. There is no unrestricted free production tier—proof-of-concept and pilot programs are typically negotiated with the sales team. Managed and hosted deployment, SLAs, bespoke character design, and enterprise integrations (CRM, speech vendors) increase pricing versus off-the-shelf avatar builders; some pilot engagements may be provided under limited-time or scoped contracts.
Typical users include large brands and regulated organizations deploying avatars for 24/7 customer service, onboarding, or training. Example roles: a Chief Customer Officer using Soul Machines to reduce contact-center handle time by deploying an avatar as first-line support, and a Learning & Development Manager using avatars to simulate customer scenarios and measure learner soft skills. Soul Machines competes with avatar and generative video vendors like Hour One and Synthesia, but differentiates via embodied behavior modeling and Digital Brain state management for long-running conversational contexts.
Three capabilities that set Soul Machines apart from its nearest competitors.
Current tiers and what you get at each price point. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot / Proof-of-Concept | Custom | Time-limited pilot, small concurrent session cap, sales-managed | Enterprises validating avatar ROI |
| Standard Deployment | Custom | Per-avatar deployment, limited concurrent sessions, support included | Mid-large teams deploying customer-facing avatars |
| Enterprise SLA | Custom | High concurrency, SLA, compliance, bespoke integrations | Regulated enterprises needing SLAs and security |
Choose Soul Machines over Synthesia if you require stateful, emotion-modeled avatars for long conversational workflows.
Head-to-head comparisons between Soul Machines and top alternatives: