Are they seriously putting Twitch streamer avatars into the game? Gross.
Personally I feel like it is kinda a way to address the "recognizability" of AI factions.
Back in Civ, it is very easy to recognize and identify the AI as a "stable" figure. You meet Gilgamesh in 2000 BCE, he will stay the same Sumerian Gilgamesh well into 2000 CE, and still being the friendly bro. You meet Alexander in 2000 BCE, he will stay the same Macedonian Alexander well into 2000 CE, and still being the annoying kid.
Humankind, with its Era system, doesn't really have this effect. You meet AI 1 in 2000 BCE, they are Assyrians; one Era later they become Mauryans; another Era passed they turned into Teutons. The players won't have an easy time trying to remember which AI "being" which culture; and the AI avatars would change their clothings based on their culture picks, which make recognizing them more harder.
From the experience of Lucy Opendev, I found that the Brown AI left the most impression among players, since that AI would stick to a culture throughout the game, thus become easily identifiable. Also, as a Civ player, I sometimes feel a sense of estrangement with other AIs in Humankind, since their identity isn't that stable.
With Twitch streamer Avatars (again, from my personal experience, that is), the AI figures can become a bit a more stable, since I can recognize them as unique established figures (IRL content creators) instead of someone who would change their appearance per Era. I am able to get the "Gilgamesh all the way" feel a bit with this set up.
In general, "de-figurization" (or "dehumanization") is one of the main features of Humankind, as well as the main direction it departs from Civ series (which had a "leader" system from the very beginning). So I guess having Twitch streamer avatars is a natural progression of Humankind - the last HMK Opendev already have this system.
