There's just one catch: Sun Kai's mother passed away in 2019.
Sounds like distant sci-fi? It's already reality. Sun Kai is using digital resurrection services – and he's not alone.
Digital Resurrection for $30
By 2025, digital resurrection services are widely available in China.
- Entry-level: from 199 yuan (~$30) for a simple AI-video or chatbot
- Premium products: from several hundred to several thousand dollars
- Industry estimates: over 1,000 deployments by just one company in 2025
And this is no niche – the global digital legacy sector was valued at $22B in 2024, projected to hit $79B by 2034. Other forecasts predict a doubling from $15B in 2025 to $31B by 2030, with annual growth of 15%+.
Case: SenseTime
In March 2024, at a shareholder meeting of China's leading AI firm, their founder Tang Xiao'ou – who had died in December 2023 – took the stage. His AI avatar spoke in his voice and style, sparking both excitement and heated debate about ethics and corporate digital legacy.
AI Experts in Your Slack
This is no longer just a Chinese story – in Poland (and everywhere else), scenarios are emerging where a "dead employee" answers a junior's questions on Slack through AI-bots trained on the code, emails, and documents of past experts.
In companies deploying knowledge retention AI, the digital "retiree" has a permanent seat on the team – boosting productivity and preserving know-how.
Is Your Company Ready for "Immortal" Employees?
Analysts predict that organizations will increasingly claim rights to knowledge, voice, and digital likeness of key experts after they leave – or after they die.
Retention of knowledge: if AI can replicate an expert's knowledge and communication – why not keep them "forever"?
Law, Risk, Regulation
🇪🇺 EU – European AI Act
From August 2, 2025, the EU requires explicit labeling of AI-generated content (deepfake, chatbot, AI avatar).
🇺🇸 US – Colorado AI Act
Colorado passed the first comprehensive law on AI in employment (enforcement: February 2026).
Ethics, Risks, and "Deadbots"
Philosophers and ethicists – like Prof. Michel Puech from Sorbonne – warn of over-reliance on deadbots and the risk to healthy grieving:
"There's a danger that an AI avatar becomes too comforting, distorting or replacing the grieving process."
The New HR and Digital Legacy Reality
If your company doesn't yet have a digital legacy policy – it's time to build one:
- Contract clauses on knowledge and image after departure/death
- AI-avatar guidelines, family consultation procedures
- Ethical audits and consent management
- Reputation and legal risk assessment
Future math:
- Creating an expert's AI avatar: $200 – $5,000
- Cost of lost critical knowledge: incalculable
- Legal risks: hundreds of thousands of dollars
A few years ago, this would've been a Black Mirror script. Today, it's already a slide deck in real companies.
The tech is ready. Regulation is trying to catch up. But the real question isn't: Will we create immortal employees?
The real question is: Who will have the courage to say STOP – and who will admit that digital immortality is no longer the future, but the present?
Because if we don't define it now, the dead will define it for us.
And let's be clear: digital immortality isn't just an ethical dilemma – it's a set of business decisions companies are making today when they sign their first digital legacy clauses.