Conversational AI Characters

AI characters you can talk to, inside the experience

A conversational AI character is a person, guide or creature who lives inside a 3D world and talks with the people who meet them. In a headset, a historical figure can answer your questions in their own voice. In a virtual ward, a patient can describe their symptoms when you ask. These are AI NPCs built for AR and VR.

They build on our immersive AI work and our long history with virtual reality.

How this differs from a chatbot

A chatbot waits for you to type and replies with text. A conversational AI character listens to you speak and answers out loud, in a voice that suits who it is. It is a modelled figure in 3D space, so you can walk around it and make eye contact. It knows where it is, what is happening around it and what you have already said, so its replies fit the moment.

Meeting one feels closer to meeting a person than using software. If you only need a presenter that delivers a script, our AI video avatars cover that.

Where conversational characters work

In a heritage app, visitors can question a historical figure about their world and hear the answers in character. For training, a virtual patient or customer role-plays a scenario so learners can practise difficult conversations somewhere safe; this is how our AI-driven training simulations work. In a free-roam location-based VR attraction, a branded character greets visitors, guides them and upsells.

The technology behind the character

A large language model gives the character its knowledge and personality. A voice layer lets it hear what you say and reply out loud, so nobody types. Real-time animation in Unity drives its body language, lip-sync and reactions, so it moves as you speak instead of playing a fixed clip. We tune all of this to your brief and build the character into the experience it belongs to. Our gamification work shapes how the encounter holds attention. We build characters for entertainment and healthcare, among other sectors.