Ryan Serhant is using artificial intelligence to expand his social media presence without having to personally appear in every video. The “Owning Manhattan” star has partnered with HeyGen to create an AI avatar modeled after his likeness, which will share real estate lessons across social platforms.
Serhant’s company produces about 2,200 social posts a month, but managing his brokerage, selling properties, and filming TV shows leaves him with limited time to create additional content himself.
Ryan Serhant is launching an AI avatar to expand his social media presence
The AI persona will appear on Instagram, TikTok and X under the handle @HeySerhant. It will focus on lessons Serhant has accumulated throughout his real estate career.
Serhant told Variety, “I’ve accumulated years of lessons that I don’t always have time to turn into content.” He added, “I do my best, but I don’t always have time anymore. As I run the businesses and I still sell and we still do the TV shows, this gives us a way to make more of that accessible to the people that want to watch it.”
Serhant said his partnership with HeyGen developed “organically” after he saw the company’s work. He also sees AI as a way to address a challenge that comes with building a personal brand.
Ryan Serhant said, “I get very, very interested in how we can add accelerant to what we do and how to scale the one asset that is really, really hard to scale, which is ourselves.” He further explained, “It’s an age-old problem: If you have a brand built around a face, if you have a brand built around a voice, how do you scale that?”
HeyGen chief marketing officer Andrew Mok said, “With his HeyGen avatar, his audience can now hear from him every day without Ryan having to be on camera every day.”
Still, Serhant stressed that the avatar will not replace his personal content. “The connection to me and my brand and my life, and people along the ride on my journey — none of that changes,” he said. “This is in addition to, which is awesome and highly helpful.”
The @HeySerhant account will post at least one video daily for 12 months. Serhant and his team will review the content to ensure it reflects his views and image.
