Ozzy Osbourne will return from beyond the grave, not as a terrifying spectre, but as a friendly AI avatar designed to chat with fans.
Nearly a year on from the legendary frontman’s death, the self-styled Prince of Darkness will be recreated as a hologram based on his likeness and personality.
Sharon Osbourne says the family has inked an agreement with AI avatar company Hyperreal and Proto Hologram, which specialises in lifelike 3D holograms.
And fans will be able to speak with the AI recreation as soon as this summer in the UK and the US.
Speaking at Licensing Expo 2026, Sharon Osbourne said: ‘The things that you can do with that are just endless.’
Mrs Osbourne said: ‘You can ask [the digital] Ozzy anything, and he will answer you in his own voice – and the answers will be what Ozzy would have said.
‘We’re going to take it all around the world. People can talk to him and he will talk back.’
She added: ‘Elvis died 50 years ago, and everybody knows Elvis. I just want that for Ozzy.’
Almost a year after his death, rock legend Ozzy Osbourne will return from the dead as an AI-powered hologram
Hyperreal says that it has recreated the Black Sabbath icon’s personality using patented ‘Digital DNA’ technology.
CEO Remington Scott told the Daily Mail that this ‘captures all four dimensions of a person’s identity: likeness, voice, motion, and performance character.’
Mr Scott adds that this data comes from ‘authenticated source material: curated, consented, and controlled by the people closest to Ozzy’.
What this means in practice is that the digital avatar will be able to interact with fans in real time in a way that approximates Ozzy’s real mannerisms.
And while Mr Scott says parents shouldn’t worry about bringing you fans to events, he notes that ‘Ozzy will still be Ozzy’.
Mr Scott adds: ‘We’re well aware of Ozzy’s famously colourful vocabulary, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘There are guardrails in place, but they’re shaped by the people who know and love him best, not by a corporation sanitising his personality’
The digital avatar will then be rendered using holographic displays created by Proto Hologram.
The AI avatar will be created by AI avatar company Hyperreal and holographic display experts Proto Hologram, which previously created a life-size avatar of the late Marvel Comics chief Stan Lee
Sharon Osbourne says that the family inked a deal with two American tech companies to create the avatar, which will be able to chat with fans and respond to questions
The Los Angeles-based company is a specialist in life-size 3D display boxes that can make it appear like someone is really standing in the room.
In the past, they have used this technology to allow celebrities to appear live at events from the other side of the world and to let fans digitally meet their idols.
Proto Hologram says that the Ozzy Osbourne avatar will appear in its 86-inch (2.18 metre) Proto Luma units.
David Nussbaum, founder of Proto Hologram, told the Daily Mail: ‘Sharon came to this with real context: she had already seen what this technology can do.
‘Sharon has said she sees Ozzy as the Elvis of his era. Elvis lives forever in every new medium that comes along – and so will Ozzy.’
Jack Osbourne, Ozzy’s youngest son, told reporters: ‘It’s kind of scary how it’s really very accurate.’
‘He will exist digitally as himself for as long as we have computers.’
While the companies have stressed the goal of enabling fan interactions, Jack also revealed the digital clone’s commercial ambitions.
The companies behind the AI Ozzy previously helped a widow bring back her deceased husband as a hologram to attend his own wake (pictured)
‘Technology has come such a long way to where it’s almost drag-and-drop,’ he told Licence Global.
‘You could shoot a template for a commercial … literally prompt what you want Digital Ozzy to do in that commercial and you just drop it in. It’s that simple now.’
However, this is not the first time that Hyperreal and Proto Hologram have brought a dead celebrity back from the grave.
In 2025, the companies created a digital avatar of the late Marvel Comics head Stan Lee, which premiered at the Los Angeles Comic Con.
Videos showed fans interacting with the avatar, which talked about Mr Lee’s love of Spider-Man and explained the origins of some of his famous characters.
In another shocking move, the companies also brought back a widow’s deceased husband to appear at his own wake.
During the memorial service, around 200 people gathered to pay their respects, only to see the man they were supposed to be mourning appear to give a speech.
Pam Cronrath, 78, who commissioned the digital memorial, said that the stunt cost 10 to 15 times her original $2,000 (£1,480) budget.
