Sequoia China’s first virtual employee, named Hong, began work on Monday. The AI has the appearance of a girl with short brown hair in a green T-shirt displaying the investment institution’s logo.
Sequoia China also released an interview to help the public know more about Hong. According to the video, Hong’s specialties are science, healthcare and consumption. She can process more than 100 business plans in less than a second and extract the key information before she sums them up. Hong is friendly and capable of casual social engagement. She creates personal files for each client and tracks their development. Hong’s hourly pay is a mere 0.68 yuan (US$0.1).
Many banks, carmakers and property developers have launched virtual employees. Last year, 16 investments related to virtual figures were made in primary markets, double the amount of a year before. In January of this year alone, 400 million yuan was spent on digital faces.
Sequoia has frequently invested in AI this year, including Mindverse, a technology company that builds digital consciousness, and Xmov, focusing on computer vision and graphics.
