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Jofie Yordan · · 6 min readAI livestreaming a hard sell in Indonesia – for now
“Don’t shop from AI live sessions – support the humans who are working hard,” reads a comment on a viral TikTok Indonesia video about the emergence of AI sellers.
The video had amassed 4.7 million views, 153,000 likes, and 4,400 comments, with most of the commenters rejecting the use of AI hosts.
The viral post was a reaction to a live commerce session by an account called Gudangjajan that featured an AI host selling snack products. It was describing a snack’s flavor and sharing details like where products were displayed in TikTok Shop’s catalogue. The AI host could even read and respond to viewer comments in real time.
Image credit: TikTok
When a viewer asked the host whether it was AI, it said yes. A slew of comments followed that exchange, urging viewers to skip AI-hosted livestream sessions and avoid buying from them.
It turned out that Avatara Labs, an AI live-commerce enabler based in Indonesia, is behind the Gudangjajan account, and the live session was part of a trial run.
Sofian Hadiwijaya, co-founder and chief technology officer at Avatara Labs, says the live session drew only over 150 viewers. However, he was surprised that so many people reported the session as spam because they disliked having an AI host.
“Eventually, we had to cut the live short because if we continued, the account might have gotten banned,” the CTO tells Tech in Asia. Hadiwijaya notes that Avatara has several trials since December 2024, but this was the first session that got a lot of attention.
While China has gone far ahead and Thailand has started experimenting with AI live commerce, it still looks like a tough sell in Indonesia.
An all-too-familiar clash
The viral video came from creator Bang Ijal, who has 97,000 followers on TikTok. He warned that AI could force human hosts “into early retirement,” and it struck a nerve.
So far, no major brands in Indonesia appear to be using AI hosts, based on Tech in Asia’s observations.
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Hadiwijaya says the backlash is understandable, comparing it to the early days of Gojek and Grab, when the ride-hailing apps shook up Indonesia’s streets.
More expensive than humans?
Can human streamers and AI hosts coexist?
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AI hosts were meant to disrupt live commerce. In Indonesia, they’re facing backlash, mounting costs, and resistance from anxious human streamers.
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