In the late 2010s, Jiangxi’s digital human trajectory emerged less from entertainment-first “virtual influencer” culture and more from two pragmatic priorities: building an industrial VR cluster and modernising public-service delivery. In that early phase, the province’s “digital human” equivalents were often embodied as VR avatars or interactive virtual characters, because the enabling infrastructure—VR production pipelines, experiences, and display ecosystems—was already being cultivated in and around Nanchang. Local firms active in VR content and interactive systems helped establish the practical skills that later carried over into fully fledged, AI-driven digital humans that could speak, answer questions, and operate as “digital employees” rather than as static mascots.
A key institutional milestone arrived in 2019 when the provincial information centre (through a marketoriented approach) pushed the creation of a state-backed operator for digital-government construction and operations: Cloud on (Jiangxi) Big Data Development Co., Ltd. (云上（江西）大数据发展有限公司). This step mattered for digital humans because it created an organisational home for long-lifecycle public digital services, including the data integration, cloud operations, and standardisation needed for conversational agents and humanoid interfaces to be more than one-off demonstrations. Even at this stage, the orientation was platform-centric—government cloud, system operations, data application and ecosystem building—rather than character-centric “virtual idol” deployment.
In early 2020, the digital-government track became more explicitly company-driven through the establishment of Digital Jiangxi Technology Co., Ltd. (数字江西科技有限公司) as a joint venture between Cloud on (Jiangxi) and Ant Group (蚂蚁集团). This partnership is a defining Jiangxi pattern: a provincial state-backed operator paired with a national-scale platform technology provider capable of shipping mature identity, payment, UI/UX, and AI service components. In practice, Digital Jiangxi became closely associated with building and operating the “Ganfu Tong” (赣服通) service channel and related digital-government capabilities, which created an immediate “distribution layer” for any future digital human embedded into public services.
From 2022 into 2023, digital humans in Jiangxi shifted from being mostly “behind the glass” VR avatars to being public-facing government service interfaces with clear operational purposes and measurable service outcomes. Within public service halls, especially in Honggutan District (红谷滩区) , the “Xiao Ganshi” (小赣事) digital human moved beyond an on-screen chatbot analogue and into self-service hardware scenarios, where speech interaction and guided workflows were designed to substitute for limited counter staff during off hours. This kind of deployment treated the digital human as part of an “unmanned service” stack: kiosk hardware, identity/authentication connections to citizen accounts, knowledge bases tied to service catalogues, and workflow integration to actually submit or pre-check materials rather than merely answer FAQs.
In parallel, the VR cluster continued to function as a capability engine for digital humans, particularly for local firms developing motion capture, rendering, and interactive character systems. A concrete example was the emergence of digital-human navigation and mixed reality guidance in transportation contexts, including a digital-guide interface introduced for wayfinding at Nanchang West Railway Station (南昌西站) via a mobile mini‑programme approach. This matters because it illustrates a “lightweight” path to digital humans: rather than building a full standalone app, companies used existing user habits (mini programmes) while adding digital-human traversal and route visualisation as a front-end companion to mapping and indoor navigation logic.
By late 2023, education began to appear as another sustained vertical for Jiangxi digital humans, with “digital employee” framing becoming common. In Yichun, the release of a campus 3D intelligent digital human named “Zhiyun” (智云) was presented as a first-of-its-kind within the province’s higher education context and was described as a joint development effort between a local college and Huawei (华为). This was not simply a mascot; the reported scope of intended scenarios—hosting, news reading, venue guidance, and even e-commerce live streaming—shows how education institutions in Jiangxi were already positioning digital humans as multifunctional service endpoints that could bridge branding, student services, and content operations.
From early 2024, Jiangxi’s cultural tourism sector accelerated digital-human adoption, and the province began to develop recognisable place-linked “virtual characters” that served both as service interfaces and as brand ambassadors. At Longhu Mountain Scenic Area (龙虎山景区) , an AI virtual digital human branded as “Xiaoshimei” (小师妹) was launched as a scenic-area persona used for livestreaming, visitor guidance, and Q&A, leveraging a knowledge base oriented around the site’s tourism content and travel tips. Unlike some earlier VR characters, the long-run value here came from continuous operation in visitor communication channels (especially social video and livestream formats) rather than from being tied to a single VR exhibit.
In April–July 2024, Jiangxi’s most visible “digital double” style tourism deployment linked a famous historical figure to a major cultural landmark. At Tengwang Pavilion (滕王阁), the scenic area expanded its interactive system by using a virtual digital human portrayal of Wang Bo (王勃) as an AI-enabled guide, building on prior interactive uses of the character. The key shift was not merely the presence of the avatar, but its positioning as a conversational interface powered by a large language model plus computer-vision and interactive features designed to answer visitor questions in context, interpret scenes, and personalise the route or content. Vendor participation was treated as an implementation detail in some reporting, but the broader pattern is clear: tourism digital humans were moving towards “LLM + perception + persona” systems rather than fixed-script guides.
In late 2024, digital humans expanded from tourism and public-service halls into finance-adjacent civic services, mirroring a national trend of “digital front desk” automation but with Jiangxi-specific branding. In Ganzhou, the local provident-fund service introduced an on-screen “digital human” customer service persona (“Qian Xiaojin”, 虔小金) described as enabling 24/7 consultation for core provident-fund tasks (deposit, withdrawal, loans), reinforcing a theme seen in Honggutan’s government halls: digital humans were increasingly treated as capacity expansion tools for high-frequency public enquiries rather than as novelty marketing outputs.
During 2025 (January–July), Jiangxi’s digital human development became more explicitly “model-driven” and “agent-like”, with multiple localities experimenting with domestic large models embedded into public services and hotlines. Media reporting in early 2025 described a wave of “AI civil servant” or “digital human customer service” rollouts in which the value proposition was “seconds-level response”, consistent interpretation of policy and procedures, and the ability to handle high-volume enquiries while human operators focused on complex cases. In the same period, professional services also began productising digital humans for content dissemination and workflow support: AllBright Law Offices (锦 天城律师事务所) publicised the rollout of its digital humans “Jintian” (锦天) and “Jinli” (锦丽), including scenarios such as public legal education content and internal/external event hosting, while also emphasising rights confirmation (copyright registration) as part of making these personas durable organisational assets.
From August 2025 onward, Jiangxi’s “digital human” narrative is best understood as a convergence of three streams: platform governance (especially digital government), digital culture-and-tourism platformisation, and “VR + AI” industrial upgrading. A particularly telling move was the approval of a province-level “Yunyou Jiangxi” (云游江西) integrated digital culture-and-tourism platform that explicitly referenced digital-human management and large-model engine components, implying that “digital humans” were being formalised as managed resources within a larger software stack rather than being treated as standalone media products. This is consistent with the broader shift to treating a digital human as the front-end of a system that requires knowledge governance, model orchestration, and continuous content operations.
The 2025 World VR Industry Conference (2025世界VR产业大会) cycle, themed around “VR + AI”, reinforced Jiangxi’s dual-track structure by keeping the VR cluster as a visible staging ground for digital-human applications. Notably, “Tengwang Pavilion” content resurfaced not only as a mobile digital-human guide but as a VR largespace experience that cast historical narrative and interactive characters as part of an immersive product. Reports described a collaboration led by China Mobile’s VR organisations together with BlueFocus Group (蓝色光标集团), and local implementation through the Jiangxi-registered China Mobile VR company; the significance for digital humans is that the “persona layer” (such as meeting a character like Wang Bo in a reconstructed scene) becomes a reusable part of a mixed reality experience pipeline rather than a one-off animation.
By December 2025 and into January 2026, the province-level framing moved further from “digital human as customer-service avatar” to “digital human as intelligent agent”. Jiangxi’s “AI+” action plan (《江西省‘人工智能+’行动方案》) described building and promoting an “Xiao Ganshi” intelligent agent capability across multiple government-facing apps and channels, implying that the same persona could serve as a unified interface to multiple workflows and knowledge bases, rather than being confined to a single app version. As a result, the most important recent change in Jiangxi may be architectural: digital humans are increasingly integrated into multi-channel service architectures that treat the persona as an interaction layer above standardised data, workflows, and model components.
[Feb 2026]
2025
July 30, 2025: Jintian City Law Firm – Jintian City’s digital humans “Jintian” and “Jinli” were launched, marking the firm’s official entry into the digital era.
July 26, 2025: Jiangxi Engineering College – The college launched an AI teaching assistant platform that integrates AI one-click PPT generation and teacher clone digital humans around three core teaching activities.
July 15, 2025: People’s Daily – Reported on new AI digital human scams affecting the general public.
June 14, 2025: Legal Daily – Reported that a 65-year-old man in Jiangxi was deceived by AI-generated digital human videos in 2024.
June 16, 2025: Postal Savings Bank of Jiangxi Province – Ji’an Branch innovatively launched AI digital humans “You Xiaoshuai” and “You Xiaomei” in a party affairs practical operation competition.
May 12, 2025: Postal Savings Bank of Jiangxi Province – Ji’an Branch used AI digital humans “You Xiaoshuai” and “You Xiaomei” in party building work practice competitions.
April 17, 2025: Nanchang Human Resources Department – Launched a platform using AI digital human technology, combining real-person hosts with digital human live streaming for 7×8 hours of uninterrupted service.
March 1, 2025: Nanchang Municipal Government – Released a digital human interpretation of “Several Measures for Supporting Comprehensive Digital Transformation of Manufacturing Industry in Nanchang City.”
March 4, 2025: Jiangxi Engineering College – Used digital human teaching in ideological and political courses, greatly innovating teaching methods.
February 25, 2025: Jiangxi Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau – Launched medical insurance AI digital human “Xiao Gan Shi” using artificial intelligence technology to provide 24-hour online medical insurance customer service.
January 8, 2025: National Medical Security Administration – Reported that during the urban and rural residents’ medical insurance payment period, a resident named Tu from Nanchang was served by the medical insurance digital human “Xiao Gan Shi.”
2024
June 30, 2024: Tengwang Pavilion in Nanchang introduced a virtual avatar of Wang Bo as an AI tour guide to enhance visitor experiences at the historic site.
July 9, 2024: Nanchang High-Tech Zone Employment Center launched an AI digital human live streaming service providing 24-hour recruitment broadcasting services.
July 7, 2024: Xianghang Technology showcased a medium-free holographic digital human at the 2024 World AI Conference that can be viewed and interacted with directly in the air without wearable devices.
May 22, 2024: Yuanmingyuan Park introduced a virtual tour guide named Xiaoyan to help visitors with navigation, route optimization, and historical education.
February 24, 2024: Xiaoduo Intelligent Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. developed AI-powered digital humans and industry-specific AI models including the SmartHuman platform for generating 3D digital avatars.
October 13, 2024: ZhiJing Future showcased leadership in AI virtual humans at the Metaverse Entrepreneurs Forum in Shanghai, winning the 2024 Outstanding Enterprise Award.
September 30, 2024: Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics published research on the impact of 2D and 3D virtual anchors on student satisfaction with digital teachers.
2023
October 20, 2023: Tuoshi Group displayed a digital e-commerce host at the 2023 World VR Industry Conference that could vividly introduce products and answer live audience questions.
November 14, 2023: Unilumin installed a 1200 sqm giant outdoor naked-eye 3D screen in the Honggutan business district in Jiangxi, China.
May 13, 2023: Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics published research on how virtual streamers influence gamers to spend more through emotional connection.
April 20, 2023: The 2022 World Conference on VR Industry was held in Nanchang, Jiangxi, featuring digital humans with real-time microexpressions.
February 12, 2023: Nanchang’s Honggutan District Government Affairs Service Center debuted “Xiao Ganshi,” the country’s first self-service digital human for government services providing 24-hour unmanned intelligent duty.
2022
November 15, 2022: The 2022 World VR Industry Conference was held in Nanchang featuring a live host and her digital clone “Jiang Xiaowei” interacting on stage.
November 13, 2022: Nanchang West Railway Station unveiled the first “Digital Human” navigation system.
November 2, 2022: Little Walnut Technology Co., Ltd. in Nanchang was interviewed about their research and development of digital virtual humans for the World VR Industry Conference.
July 11, 2022: Pingzhi Information signed a virtual digital human cooperation agreement with Zhejiang Mobile to cultivate the market using a post-paid business model.