Getting real about synthetic reality: How business leaders can drive trustworthy innovation

What’s changing most is where these experiences live and operate, moving into the systems, platforms, and daily workflows.

As synthetic reality matures and use cases expand, trust—not just technology—will likely determine success. The conversation is shifting away from how realistic these experiences look to how responsibly and effectively they operate at scale.

Trust at the center

Avatars, like their human counterparts, are judged not just by what they say but by how they say it. In employee support scenarios, clarity and tone can determine whether a user feels confident or confused. In training environments, responsiveness and realism can shape how effectively someone learns. Emotional intelligence matters as much (if not more) than the artificial.

Every time customers, employees, or stakeholders engage with a synthetic reality avatar, they can form impressions of the organization itself. In those moments, they’re not evaluating the model. They’re evaluating whether the experience feels credible, consistent, and worthy of their trust.

Trust is becoming a more deliberate and valuable human signal. And the data shaping an avatar, including its knowledge, voice, and boundaries, should reflect both the organization and the individual it represents. That’s why, in a synthetic reality world, the traditional idea of “trust, but verify” is evolving toward a greater emphasis on verification before trust.

Trust cannot be programmed but rather, earned through interaction and proven through outcomes. It requires transparency when something is synthetic, consistency in how it behaves, and alignment with the organization’s voice and values. Responsible AI practices, data privacy, bias mitigation, and rigorous quality controls are not supporting elements. They are the system itself.

Organizations that build with these principles at the core can create confidence and competitive advantage. Those that treat them as afterthoughts will likely see trust erode long before value is realized.

What we’ve learned by doing it ourselves

PwC has been deploying, measuring, refining, and experimenting with synthetic experiences across leadership communications, learning environments, and client engagement scenarios. Executive avatars have presented at events, delivered multilingual communications, and supported interactive experiences at scale across large, distributed audiences. Working hands-on has surfaced a set of practical insights.

• Real-world reactions matter
  Synthetic reality performs differently in the wild than in controlled demos. Patterns of comfort, skepticism, engagement, and trust can emerge when real users interact with these systems in realistic environments.
• Human-centered design transforms outcomes
  The more credible the experience feels, including tone, cadence, and responsiveness, the more likely people are to meaningfully engage with it.
• The easiest part is building the avatar
  The real challenge is getting it into the places where people already work. Embedding experiences across web apps, internal platforms, and event environments introduce complexity that many organizations underestimate. Integration, not creation, is where momentum often slows.
• Without a clear path, teams improvise
  When demand outpaces governance, teams are likely to either stall or work around existing controls. Both outcomes can create risks. Scaling synthetic reality requires a repeatable, approved pathway, not a one-off implementation.
• Synthetic extends human presence
  Leaders are using avatars to scale their reach while maintaining connection. In some cases, organizations use stock or purpose-built avatars designed for specific roles or experiences. In others, avatars are based on real individuals.
  
  These are not deepfakes. When avatars represent real individuals, they should be created with explicit consent, and their use governed by clear approval and control mechanisms. That distinction is critical for building trust and enabling broader adoption. In our work, those permissions and controls are built into how avatars are created and deployed.
• Governance is the whole playbook
  Guardrails are not buried in documentation. They shape how the system behaves, what it can say, and how it evolves. This includes content boundaries, approval workflows, and testing against edge cases.

From experience to infrastructure

As we’ve moved from experimentation to adoption, a new requirement is emerging. As synthetic reality evolves, organizations may need an operating model to support it.

It’s not enough to create compelling experiences. They should be deployed consistently across environments, governed centrally, and updated without friction. This means thinking beyond individual use cases and toward shared capabilities. It includes how avatars are configured, how they are embedded, and how they are monitored over time.

We’ve focused on creating a governance layer that allows teams to embed synthetic experiences into their applications while maintaining control over access, behavior, and performance. Moving from isolated builds to managed systems is what allows synthetic reality to scale safely and sustainably.

What business leaders can do now

Synthetic reality is quickly moving into mainstream enterprise operations. Organizations that act deliberately will likely be better positioned to scale effectively.

1. Start with purpose
   Focus on where synthetic experiences can solve real problems, such as clarifying complex information, extending leadership communication, enhancing training, or improving service delivery.
2. Design for trust from the start
   Transparency, governance, and brand alignment should guide every decision, not follow it.
3. Plan for integration, not isolation
   Effective experiences are those that live inside existing workflows and platforms. Embedding matters more than novelty.
4. Measure what actually matters
   Look beyond operational metrics. Track comprehension, engagement, and user confidence.
5. Scale with intention
   Move from individual use cases to repeatable capabilities. This includes governance models, integration patterns, and ongoing iteration.
6. Stay human above all
   Synthetic reality can work effectively when it extends human capability. The human is the loop—not just at the center but throughout the experience. People are still looking for clarity, empathy, and consistency, regardless of the interface.

Synthetic reality isn’t about replacing people but helping them show up in more places, more consistently, and with greater impact.

These experiences are no longer experimental. They’re becoming embedded, governed, and operational—a part of everyday work.

But for these experiences to scale effectively, trust and confidence in how they extend human presence and enable connection will become increasingly important.