As strange as it may sound, thousands of real-world employees are beginning to use avatars as part of their regular jobs. A research by Stanford University has shown how employees at American companies like IBM, Accenture, Cisco, State Farm, Intel, BP and Wells Fargo log into virtual worlds and use avatars to brainstorm with colleagues, recruit employees, sell to customers, attend leadership training, manage programs, direct operation centers, and collaborate with company groups around the world.

Read: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/01/avatars_at_work.html