Conversational AI: with Jumbo Mana and his interactive avatars, chat with Van Gogh

Humanize itartificial intelligence, this is what the Strasbourg start-up Jumbo Mana offers. The company founded by Christophe Renaudineau and Frédéric Rose, whose innovative solution is present at international trade fairs such as VivaTech, intends to revolutionize customer service and add its touch to the museum experience. In particular, it develops virtual avatars of historical figures such as Vincent Van Gogh, with the aim of offering authentic and realistic interaction in cultural places.

Jumbo Mana, the deeptech that revolutionizes customer service

This is a deeptech specializing in behavioral generative artificial intelligence, whose virtual creations invite users to interact in a natural and realistic way. Jumbo Mana's primary ambition is to be a trusted guide for individuals in labyrinthine environments. “ It could be an airport where you are looking for your boarding gate, a tourist town in a country where you don't know the language, a trade show which takes place over a huge surface area, all of these places where you can easily feel lost and where there are often a lot of people », Specifies Michaël Freiss, general director of the company created in 2022.

According to the person concerned, Jumbo Mana meets a customer expectation in certain places like Vivatech, where the company installed its solution during the last edition of the event: no longer finding themselves disoriented in the middle of all these stands, finding help or information in a way that complements what can be found on applications or provided by a person. To meet this expectation, the solution proposed by Jumbo Mana is intended to be natural and practical, conversing by voice with an interactive avatar. And this, regardless of the language. Some salons welcome a large Chinese clientele, who do not necessarily speak French or English, but the interface allows the user to speak in their native language or in any language they are fluent in. », Illustrates the manager.

Louis, the avatar presented at VivaTech to navigate through the show.

Bringing conversational artificial intelligence to the museum world

Museums are another ideal playground for Jumbo Mana, who has already developed interactive avatars of historical cultural figures like

Rimbaud for the house of elsewhere in Charleville-Mézières, or Vincent Van Gogh for the Musée d'Orsay on the occasion of the exhibition “Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise”. On the same principle as at a trade fair, the user can converse with the avatar, which plays a complementary role to that of the museum guide. Thanks to behavioral artificial intelligence algorithms, he can communicate information about his life, the works exhibited, give his impressions on various subjects, and thus change the way we approach culture and the museum experience. “ The most interesting thing with this type of avatar is that we allow anyone to be a direct actor in their understanding of the artist's world and their work thanks to a face-to-face encounter, where generally the he cultural experience is lived as a top and down, where the knowledgeable teaches things to the visitors who only receive. This paradigm shift also changes the learning experience ", affirms Michaël Freiss, who says he is asked to develop other avatars from the world of culture, for the Albert Schweitzer House (Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, editor's note) in Gunsbach in Alsace, among others.

Transparency, digital sovereignty and the French tech ecosystem

For the future, Jumbo Mana plans to be even closer to users. Currently, avatars depend on terminals, but Michaël Freiss wants them to be as close as possible to end users, which is why he and his team are working on a version that works on smartphones. A development which will be carried out, as is the case today, by working with a French tech ecosystem. Why is this so important? “ Who says artificial intelligence says data, but we have a challenge in France to remain masters of it. By working with Mistral and OVH, we are assured that the data we use is hosted on sovereign clouds. This contributes to our digital sovereignty, and we must not lose sight of this, whether it is an avatar for a trade show or for a museum », concludes the manager.