EXCLUSIVE: As AI continues infiltrate the entertainment industry, Particle6 founder and CEO Eline Van Der Velden is taking it one step further with the launch of Xicoia, an AI talent studio designed to create, manage and monetize a new generation of hyperreal digital stars.
The new company, which Van Der Velden will officially launch at the Zurich Film Festival’s upcoming Zurich Summit Conference this weekend, will focus on creating AI talent for use in everything from film and TV productions to podcasts, TikTok, YouTube, brand campaigns and video games – as well as interactions with fans.
Xicoia will sit alongside AI production company Particle6, which Van Der Velden founded in 2015, and will build on Particle6’s proprietary avatar personality engine DeepFame plus a direct fan engagement platform. Xicoia is now developing a scalable portfolio of emotionally intelligent AI personas.
Unlike static avatars, Xicoia’s AI characters are developed with complete backstories, distinct voices, evolving narrative arcs and fully realised personalities. The characters can engage in unscripted conversations, perform monologues, respond to trends in real time and adapt tone and references to suit platform-specific audiences. They will operate on a hybrid model of human creative oversight and autonomous AI responsiveness, ensuring cultural relevance and brand safety while maintaining creative ambition.
The company has already soft-launched its first character, Tilly Norwood, on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube and the AI-actress is building an early following.
Xicoia said it is also currently working with “several Hollywood stars who wish to appear on screen as their younger or current selves” and is also collaborating with estates “to bring legendary performers back to the big screen while offering studios a new way to reimagine and exploit existing IP.”
The company’s mid to long term roadmap includes scaling to more than 40 AI personals, licensing its DeepFame technology as a platform, and expand into scripted entertainment formats, live performances and merchandising. Xicoia’s vision, it said, is to create an entire universe of characters where events in one character’s life may impact another, offering crossover potential, fandom expansion and an evolving digital IP.
“With Xicoia, we’re creating the first studio where AI-driven talent isn’t just a gimmick – it’s living, performing IP with depth humor and narrative arcs,” said Van Der Velden. “We believe the next generation of cultural icons will be synthetic – stars that never tire, never age and can interact with fans. But just like the best entertainment companies, the key isn’t the technology – it’s the storytelling and people behind those stories.”
She continued: “We’re standing at the dawn of a new category – AI-powered celebrity IP. Xicoia’s mission is to shape it, own it and set the creative standard. Just as the 20th century was defined by the rise of film stars and pop icons, we believe the 21st will be defined by synthetic talent.”
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