Virgin Voyages makes waves in artificial intelligence by inventing J-Lo’s ‘Jen AI’

Rather, in an ad released Tuesday, the singer-dancer-actress became the first celebrity to give their likeness to artificial intelligence (AI) program to create ‘Jen AI,’ an AI-powered virtual version of J-Lo whose job is to invite people to sail the high seas. As part of the campaign, consumers can create their own custom invitations using the Jen AI tool by visiting VirginVoyages.com.

The spot opens with a reclining J-Lo, who in a seductive voice introduces herself as Virgin Voyages’ chief celebration officer and invites people to board the ship. Suddenly, due to a glitch, her true identity is revealed: she‘s actually a man named Kyle. The viewer then learns that the real J-Lo is nowhere to be found and the woman in frame is indeed Jen AI, a play on words for ’generative AI’ – the burgeoning class of tools that produce content in response to user inputs. Another woman from the backend takes on Kyle’s duties, suggesting that Jen AI needs an upgrade or two before the technology is perfected.

“Creatively, we love that this makes you laugh and will keep you engaged from the beginning to the end of the film when you send the invites featuring Jen AI to all your friends,” said Nathan Rosenberg, Virgin Voyages’ chief brand officer.

Created with advertising agency VMLY&R and startup AI agency Deeplocal, the campaign builds on an existing partnership between Virgin Voyages and Lopez, which started in 2021. It comes as 77% of voyagers recommended sailing Virgin Voyages over other cruise lines, according to Condé Nast Traveler’s 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards.

“Through this wildly creative idea from VMLY&R, we are both using and poking fun at the world of AI. This idea brings together an innovative and playful use of AI tech, alongside a global icon and superstar,” said Rosenberg. “Jen AI gives everybody access to Jennifer to help gather their loved ones together, stop making excuses and set sail on the vacation of a lifetime.”

“We all want to celebrate things in life, and there is no better way than to celebrate than with a Virgin Voyage, but we know life is busy and it’s difficult to get your crew together and make it all happen,” said Ryan McManus, chief creative officer, North America at VMLY&R. “With all the developments around gen AI, we decided to build something that can help invite the world to Voyage. Meet Jen AI. A kind of AI version of Jennifer Lopez – designed to invite your friends and family to a celebratory voyage. Because who can say no to J-Lo?”

For more, sign up for The Drum’s daily US newsletter here.