HeyGen Report: 71.6% of Small Business Owners Shoot Videos but Never Publish, AI Avatars Step In

HeyGen released "The State of AI Avatars 2026," based on a survey of 1,000+ small business owners, revealing a striking gap: many owners film videos but never publish them, and AI avatars are being positioned as the fix.

Confirmed

• Survey covered 1,000+ small business owners; 71.6% have filmed a video for their business but never published it
• Reasons for shelving: 53.9% felt the video wasn't professional enough, 48.6% disliked their on-camera appearance
• The report demonstrates AI avatars replacing on-camera presence, helping those unfamiliar with lighting, framing, or on-screen performance produce polished business videos
• The full report has been publicly released

Why it matters

• The survey provides demand-side data supporting AI avatar adoption in SMB content marketing, targeting the widespread pain point of "filmed but never published"
• For brand content and short-video marketing, AI avatars could significantly lower the barrier to professional video production
• Note that the report was published by HeyGen itself, whose core product is exactly AI avatars—the findings carry a clear promotional context

2026-09-25 ~ 2026-09-25 · 6 related posts

• [source] HeyGen survey: 71.6% of small business owners film videos they never post; AI avatars fill the gap — HeyGen · 2026-09-25

5 near-duplicate retellings: hey_abusiddik · hey_abusiddik · hey_abusiddik · Med1_Ai · Med1_Ai