AI kissing (artificial intelligence kissing special effects) is explosively popular under the dual drive of its technological evolution and user demands. In 2023, the use of special effects on the world’s short-video platforms increased by 68% year-on-year, among which emotional interaction special effects accounted for 35%. AI kisses, with 89% reality and 0.3-second real-time rendering speed, ranked as the fastest-growing social media feature on TikTok and Instagram, with peak daily usage at more than 210 million times. For instance, Snapchat’s “AR Kiss” filter simulates the touch and temperature of a real kiss (between a range of 36-37℃) through 3D facial modeling (with an error of less than 0.5 millimeters) and haptic feedback algorithms. In the first week of launch, it increased the users’ average daily use time by 22% and the advertising exposure rate by 19%.
User behavior data shows that AI kissing is in alignment with Generation Z’s social needs of “low risk and high emotional return.”. According to a survey conducted by Meta, 62% of users aged 18-24 believe that virtual communication can ease real social pressure, and AI kissing achieves customized expression through an emotional computing model (with compatibility for 12 kissing intensities and 7 emotional patterns). In 2023, Bilibili UP owner “Tech Xiaomiao” created a virtual lover interaction video with the AI kissing feature, which received 48 million views. The density of bullet comments increased three times, and the conversion rate of fans exceeded the industry average by 45%. After South Korean social application Zepeto introduced the AI kissing feature, the revenue from user-paid virtual gifts increased by 73%, with a single effect costing $0.99, which adds $120 million in revenue annually.
Being able to monetize on a commercial scale is the force behind the popularity of ai kissing. According to Sensor Tower, among the world’s Top 20 video apps in 2023, in-app purchase revenue with the ai kissing effect increased by an average of 31%. Among them, TikTok’s “AI Companion” feature (where users can customize the kissing behavior of virtual characters) contributed to the addition of 280 million US dollars in quarterly revenue. Brand owners also seized the possibility of marketing – Coca-Cola’s 2024 Valentine’s Day campaign generated interaction videos between virtual idols and users with AI kissing, with a user participation rate of 34 million users, which helped achieve a 12% increase in product line sales compared to the previous period and reduced customer acquisition costs by 28%.
The democratization of technology has lowered the threshold for creation. Adobe’s video editing AI application Premiere Rush has launched an AI kissing template library. It only takes users to upload a single facial photo and 10 seconds of voice to generate a 4K resolution, 30 frames per second kissing animation. The production cycle has been reduced from 72 hours of manual 3D modeling to 15 minutes. Chinese start-up Yingpu Technology’s “KissMaster” SaaS platform provides AI kissing generation services to small and medium-sized content teams with a cloud GPU cluster (reducing computing power costs by 40%). As of 2023, it had serviced over 12,000 customers, and the production cost of a video on average dropped from 5,000 yuan to 300 yuan. The return on investment (ROI) was 230%.
Despite ethical concerns (EU AI Act requires 18+ age limit for emotional interaction features), AI kissing technology is evolving. NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform combines GAN and physics engine to simulate lip contact effects under different humidity levels (40-90% RH) and pressures (0.1-5N) with 50% faster rendering efficiency. Research institute ABI predicts that AI kissing in 2026 will make the global virtual social market size exceed 62 billion US dollars, and the penetration rate will increase from 17% in 2023 to 39%, creating a new paradigm of “digitalization of intimate relationships”.