Imagine an ordinary working day. One client needs a proposal, another project's date has changed, and an invoice should already be on its way. You open a chat window. Where do you start?
With Studio, we want you to start with a familiar name. “Kairi, let's look at this proposal.” Or: “Madis, what does this change mean for the plan?” A name and a face give your question an addressee and a reminder of their role. The conversation has a place in the company's everyday work.
Our characters make that idea visible. The short stories below illustrate how each agent could help with work you assign. They are examples, not an account of an actual customer's day. The agents available in your workspace, their permissions and their autonomy depend on your company's setup.
Coordination and the wider picture
Sven — start with what matters now
Five open questions are waiting in the morning. You ask Sven to help put them in order. He brings together the sales, project and other context available to him, helping distinguish a decision needed today from something that can wait. Where information is missing, he says so.
Sven is the team's calm starting point. We want his character to bring one useful possibility to mind: you can ask for help finding the next step without untangling the whole working day at once.
Sales and client relationships
Kairi — every inquiry has a story
A client writes, “Could you send a proposal?” That leaves plenty to clarify. You ask Kairi to review the earlier correspondence and prepare follow-up questions. She gathers what is known and drafts a reply for you to review.
Kairi is a familiar face beside client work: the inquiry, the terms, the proposal and the next conversation. Seeing her alongside a proposal helps connect it with that ongoing work. Prices and commitments still follow your agreed approval process.
Projects and delivery
Madis — turn a promise into a workable plan
The proposal is accepted. Now you ask Madis to work through delivery: which stages are needed, who needs to contribute, and what does the deadline depend on? He helps prepare tasks and surface assumptions that need settling before work begins.
Madis brings a practical question to mind: “What needs to happen next?” His character gives project work a recognizable counterpart. You and your team do the work and report progress; Madis helps keep the plan and agreements together.
Finance and invoicing
Liisa — completed work should reach the invoice
A project phase is finished, but preparing the invoice slipped to the end of a busy day. Liisa helps bring together the billing information and prepare an invoice draft. You can check that the period, amounts and agreed work are correctly recorded.
Liisa represents precision in the team. Her face connects invoices and financial overviews with a particular role. Trust comes from figures you can check and work done correctly; the character helps you recognize whose work you are looking at.
People, time and availability
Piret — people belong in the plan
Before assigning next week's work, you want to know who is available and who is on leave. Piret helps review the people, absence and time information available to her. The plan can reflect when the team is actually there.
At the end of the day, the next small task might be recording your own time. Piret gives these everyday questions a familiar addressee. Work planning needs room for the people whose time makes the results possible.
Research and sources
Ralf — look at the source before the conclusion
Someone mentions a new market opportunity. Before deciding, you want to know what is behind it. You ask Ralf to investigate: find sources, compare information and identify what remains unknown. A useful answer lets you check its foundations.
Ralf is the team's curious researcher. His character is a reminder to ask, “Where does this information come from?” He helps prepare the background for a decision; you judge what it means for your company.
Marketing and communication
Tõnis — good work deserves a clear story
A project is complete and you want to tell clients about it. You give Tõnis the essentials: what the task was, who benefits from the result, and what may be shared publicly. He helps find the focus and prepare a post or campaign draft.
Tõnis brings the communicator's role to the team. His familiar face connects a draft with the marketing work behind it. You review facts, tone and promises before publication, with the agreed publishing permissions in place.
Contracts and legal questions
Leo — let's read the small print too
A new partnership agreement looks straightforward at first. You ask Leo to help read the terms and highlight what needs clarification: responsibilities, deadlines or termination provisions. The discussion starts with specific questions about the document.
Leo gives contract work a calm, recognizable face. He helps prepare questions, while a person owns the legal decision and obtains qualified advice where needed. The character expresses his role; it does not confer professional qualifications.
Technical advice
Romet — how does this fit together in practice?
A technical requirement in the brief needs unpacking. Where Romet is configured for the team, you can ask him to help work through technical documents, compare possible approaches and formulate questions about missing information.
Romet's work clothes connect technical advice with practical delivery. He helps prepare the discussion while a qualified person checks the solution's suitability and safety. His role is to make that technical conversation clearer.
Why would a face and a name make a difference?
Human–computer interaction research uses the term social presence: the sense that someone is there in an interaction. Language and conversational behavior alone can contribute to that feeling. A character offers another possible cue.
Clifford Nass and Youngme Moon described experiments in which people applied social conventions, including politeness and reciprocity, to computers even while knowing they were interacting with machines. Nass & Moon (2000), Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers.
Theo Araujo's experiment found that a chatbot's name and more human-like language affected perceived humanness and emotional connection with the company. There was no overall increase in social presence: that result also depended on how the chatbot was introduced. Araujo (2018), Living up to the chatbot hype (PDF).
Our design inference is modest: a familiar appearance, a clear role and consistent interaction may help collaboration feel more personal and understandable. These studies did not test Studio's characters or establish that full-body images improve work outcomes. How our users experience the difference is something we need to learn in our own product.
A familiar team alongside everyday work
When the same face keeps appearing alongside the same responsibility, we want recognition to become simple: clients with Kairi, projects with Madis, invoices with Liisa. It gives conversations continuity and makes the division of work visible. Our aim is for Studio to feel like a team whose members you recognize and know how to ask for help.
That connection has to be earned through the work. The agents are AI characters, without human feelings or personal life stories. You can judge their usefulness by sources, results and visible activity. Clear roles, permissions and approvals matter as much as the faces beside them.
StudioAgents brings familiar faces to your Mac desktop
We also have StudioAgents, or Hiiu Studio Agents: a Mac desktop app where Sven, Kairi, Madis and Piret appear as animated characters and reply in speech balloons. Connect it to your Studio OS workspace and ask a question with Control–Option–Space. The downloads page currently offers a test build for macOS 14.6 or later.
The benefit is easiest to see halfway through a task. You are looking at a document and want to ask about it. Drop the file onto an agent and add your question there. Studio notifications can reach the desktop, and replies appear beside your work. You have a route into the conversation even when the Studio browser window is not in front of you.
Desktop chat uses your Studio workspace and the same permissions; its history is visible in Studio too. Open the relevant browser page when you need a fuller view. Notifications can be switched off. The idea is to keep help within reach in the way you choose.
Explore StudioAgents and download the Mac test build →
Start with one name and one real piece of work. A team becomes familiar through what you do together.