Forum Discussion
We Need to Talk, Ava Tar 😬 (Annual Performance Review)
Every employee gets a performance review. So I gave one to Articulate's AI Avatar.
Meet Ava Tar: AI Avatar, Virtual Presenter, and self nominated Employee of the Month.
She shows up on time, never asks for PTO, and has never once complained about the lighting. She also keeps talking after she's done, talks with her hands (all of them), and her lips occasionally do their own thing. So we needed to talk.
👉 We Need to Talk, Ava Tar 😬 (Annual Performance Review)
How it works
The whole thing is a Rise Code Block built like an HR review form. You're the manager.
⭐ Strengths: flip cards with the real wins. Script to video in minutes, no camera or studio, it lives right inside Rise, easy script swaps, captions included, and the same face every time.
📋 Growth areas: you rate Ava on 9 competencies like "Knowing When to Stop Talking" and "Works Well With Others." Each rating slams down a stamp, then shows the evidence, Ava's response, and my suggested fix.
💸 Development plan: you get 100 Review Bucks (play money!) to fund her upgrades. The upgrades cost way more than 100, so you have to choose. Just like real life.
✍️ Sign off: sign the review, compare your picks to mine, and hear Ava's response. Then hit reset and try again with different answers.
The plot twist: I ran out of credits 😅
Halfway through building a course about AI Avatar credits, I ran out of AI Avatar credits. So I leaned in. Ava's statements are now "submitted in writing due to a credit shortage." Her photo is stamped INSUFFICIENT CREDITS, and the Generate Video button responds with things like "Still 0 credits. We checked."
The good news is that AI audio doesn't use credits. So Ava still got her voice. Her face is just on unpaid leave. Her words type out as she talks, which accidentally demos one of my wish list items: an interactive transcript. 🤣
And yes, there's a blooper. Count the hands. 🙌
My wish list for Ava's development plan
- A trim editor after the video is done, to cut that awkward ending.
- Two avatars in one video, so we can build real conversations and scenarios.
- Fix one line without regenerating the whole video and spending credits again.
- Voice controls for pace, pauses, emphasis and tone, plus a way to fix pronunciation.
- A calm to expressive slider for gestures and background motion.
- A lip sync resync button.
- Translated narration, not just translated captions.
- A shared team library of approved avatars and voices.
- An interactive transcript in the player.
Why I built it this way
A pros and cons list is easy to skim and easy to forget. Turning feedback into a performance review made it personal, a little ridiculous, and much more fun to click through. And it let me be honest about the gaps while giving credit where it's due. I really do like working with Ava. I just want her to grow. 💙
Built with a co-creator
I built this with Claude as my development partner. Claude wrote the Code Block, and I directed the design, the jokes, and Ava Tar herself. Every image of Ava Tar was made with the AI Avatar tool.
Your turn!
How would you rate Ava Tar? And if you only had 100 Review Bucks, which upgrade would you fund first? Tell me in the comments 👇