Convai

Convai, founded in 2022 by Purnendu Mukherjee, is an AI-driven platform based in San Jose, California, that focuses on creating interactive and immersive experiences through conversational AI. The company develops real-time, multimodal perception AI characters for virtual and extended reality (XR) worlds. 

Convai’s technology allows the creation of lifelike 3D avatars or non-playable characters (NPCs) capable of interacting with users through natural language, voice, gestures, and actions. These avatars can perceive their environment, understand complex verbal instructions, and engage in dynamic conversations with contextually relevant responses.

The platform supports developers in creating characters for various applications, including gaming, virtual worlds, brand representation, and XR training. Convai uses advanced tools, such as NVIDIA’s Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) and Audio2Face, for facial animations and speech recognition, allowing characters to deliver more realistic interactions. The company also integrates AI technologies to enable NPCs to perform complex actions, such as navigating environments or carrying out multistep tasks.
 

Convai’s solutions are beneficial for industries such as gaming, learning, and training by providing highly engaging and adaptive experiences. It also has applications in creating digital brand ambassadors and enhancing social virtual worlds. 

The platform is designed to be developer-friendly with no-code tools and deep integrations with popular game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine. The company has raised approximately $5 million in seed funding and is backed by investors like Rainfall Ventures and Monta Vista Capital.

Convai was founded in 2022 by Purnendu Mukherjee with the aim of creating an AI platform that could support interactive and immersive experiences in virtual environments. 

Based in San Jose, California, the company set out to build a platform capable of generating lifelike 3D AI characters. These characters, also known as digital avatars, can interact through natural language, voice, gestures, and actions, offering users a more engaging experience within virtual and XR environments.
 

The company's platform was designed to address a significant gap in the virtual world space by enabling developers to create characters with advanced multimodal perception. These characters are able to perceive their surroundings in real-time, understand human language, and respond with realistic actions and dialogue. Convai’s technology draws on spatial awareness, meaning that its virtual agents can react to their environment in ways that were not possible before.

Convai gained significant attention in its early years for its integration with game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity, which allowed for deep integration of its AI-powered characters in a variety of gaming and virtual reality (VR) applications. 

In particular, its use of NVIDIA’s Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) and Riva for speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies enabled it to deliver high-quality facial animations and voice interactions, significantly enhancing the realism of in-game and XR experiences.

The company’s platform has expanded to support a range of use cases, including immersive learning environments, where the AI characters can serve as tutors or guides, and virtual brand representatives, where the AI agents interact with customers. This expansion into various sectors showcases Convai’s adaptability and growth within the conversational AI space.

By 2024, Convai’s platform had over 15,000 registered users, many of whom were game developers and creators looking to build more engaging and dynamic non-playable characters (NPCs). The company’s focus on dynamic interactions and emotional awareness in AI characters allowed for more realistic in-game experiences, where characters could express emotions and engage in complex, context-aware conversations.
 

As of 2025, Convai continues to push forward with innovations that include the development of its own large language models (LLMs) and improvements in its AI-driven avatar creation tools. The company remains privately funded, having raised around $5 million in seed funding from investors including Rainfall Ventures and Monta Vista Capital. 


Convai’s technology is now used not only in gaming but also in industries such as training and brand engagement, where its AI characters improve user interaction and learning outcomes. The company has also integrated its solutions with platforms like NVIDIA Omniverse, expanding its reach into the professional and enterprise markets.

Convai’s mission is to revolutionise virtual worlds by creating AI-powered characters that interact naturally and intelligently. The company aims to provide developers with an easy-to-use platform that allows them to design lifelike, multimodal avatars capable of understanding and responding to human interactions in real time. By combining spatial awareness with conversational AI, Convai seeks to improve user engagement, enhance learning experiences, and support immersive storytelling in gaming and other virtual environments. Its goal is to make AI characters as intelligent and emotionally aware as humans, transforming how we interact with digital worlds.

Convai envisions a future where virtual worlds are populated by intelligent, emotionally aware AI characters that can interact in a fully immersive, human-like way. The company aims to lead the next generation of digital experiences by empowering developers to create dynamic and lifelike avatars. These characters will possess spatial intelligence, understand their surroundings, and communicate naturally, offering users richer and more engaging experiences. Convai is committed to breaking down the barriers between the real and virtual worlds, making AI characters more integrated, responsive, and capable of adapting to users’ needs in various environments.

Convai has gained recognition for its groundbreaking work in the field of conversational AI and immersive experiences. The company’s innovative platform has attracted attention from both the gaming and enterprise sectors, thanks to its ability to create intelligent, context-aware AI characters. Convai’s technology has been showcased at major industry events, including the CES 2024, where it was highlighted for its use of NVIDIA technologies like Riva and Audio2Face. The company has earned praise for its contributions to enhancing virtual reality and XR experiences, and for its role in advancing AI-driven avatars in the gaming industry.

Convai offers a comprehensive suite of products and services designed to revolutionise the way AI characters interact in virtual worlds. The core product is its conversational AI platform, which enables the creation of lifelike, multimodal avatars that can interact with users in real-time. These avatars, or AI characters, can respond with human-like dialogue, voice, gestures, and actions, making virtual environments feel more immersive and engaging.
 

AI-Powered Avatars- Convai’s offering is the ability to create 3D AI characters that possess advanced spatial awareness and multimodal perception. These avatars are capable of perceiving their environment, understanding human language, and reacting with contextually appropriate behaviours. The avatars can interact with users through voice and text, while also interpreting visual and auditory cues from their surroundings. This allows for more dynamic interactions and realistic behaviour within virtual worlds, gaming environments, and training simulations.
 

Convai’s platform supports a wide range of use cases, from non-playable characters (NPCs) in video games to virtual brand representatives. These avatars are designed to enhance user experiences by providing interactive, engaging, and lifelike characters that respond to actions and conversations in a way that feels natural. 

For example, in gaming, Convai's AI characters can engage in conversations with players, adapt to the storyline, and perform actions based on player input. In virtual training environments, they can serve as interactive instructors or coaches, guiding users through simulations and role-playing scenarios.
 

Developer Tools and Integration- Convai’s platform is built for flexibility, offering tools that allow developers to create and deploy AI characters easily. Developers can use Convai’s no-code creation tools for quick deployment, or they can take advantage of its APIs and plugins for more customisation. The platform integrates seamlessly with popular game engines, including Unreal Engine, Unity, and 3JS, giving developers the freedom to create immersive experiences across various platforms.
 

Convai’s integration with NVIDIA technologies like the Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), Riva for speech recognition, and Audio2Face for facial animations makes the avatars more lifelike. 

These technologies allow for real-time facial expressions, lip-syncing, and natural voice conversations, ensuring that the characters’ actions match their dialogue in a believable manner. Convai is also developing custom large language models (LLMs) to improve the conversational abilities of these avatars and reduce latency in responses.
 

Applications and Use Cases- Convai’s technology is applicable in a variety of industries. In gaming, Convai enables game developers to create more immersive, interactive NPCs that can engage in meaningful conversations and respond intelligently to player actions. These avatars go beyond traditional scripted interactions by incorporating real-time environmental awareness, which makes the experience feel more personalised and dynamic.
 

In education and training, Convai’s avatars can be used to simulate real-world scenarios, where learners interact with characters in virtual settings. For instance, in healthcare, training simulations can involve interacting with AI characters in medical scenarios, helping students practice their skills in a controlled but lifelike environment. The avatars can adapt their behaviour and responses based on the learner’s actions, making the training experience more effective and engaging.
 

Convai’s technology also extends to customer service, where businesses can use AI-powered brand representatives to interact with customers on websites and mobile apps. These virtual agents can answer questions, guide users through processes, and provide support, all while maintaining a natural, human-like conversational flow.
 

Customisation and Emotional Awareness- One of the standout features of Convai’s platform is its ability to customise avatars with different personalities, voices, and emotions. The avatars can display a range of facial expressions and emotions, which enhances the realism of interactions. 

Convai’s emotional AI capabilities allow characters to respond to conversations with emotional awareness, adjusting their tone, gestures, and expressions according to the context. This makes for a more immersive and emotionally engaging experience, whether in a game, a training simulation, or a customer service interaction.
 

Convai’s platform also supports multilingual capabilities, offering over 65 languages and 500+ voices. This ensures that businesses and developers can reach a global audience, creating diverse experiences that cater to users from different linguistic backgrounds.