Genies, an AI avatar and gaming tech company, has partnered with game engine maker Unity on game AI avatar tools in 2026.
The companies want to create and grow games and interactive experiences, and they will give game developers access to highly customizable AI avatar and asset creation tools. The partnership will also bring game, entertainment, celebrity, and sports IP into the Unity Asset Store, where developers can gain access to IP-driven avatars and assets to create games via Genies’ partnerships.
“We have deals lined up and we wanted to come out with a rolling thunder. The first one we’re coming out with is Unity,” said Akash Nigam, CEO of Los Angeles-based Genies, in an interview with GamesBeat. “This is a super special one.”
With the Genies’ Smart Avatar Framework and user-generated-content (UGC) systems coming to the Unity Asset Store and Unity Editor, developers can cut down the time needed to create game-ready avatars and assets.
Nigam added, “We have a conviction and belief that everybody is going to have an AI avatar on Earth. And you don’t want to just talk to an AI avatar. You want to be able to do stuff with an AI avatar. Your AI friends need to feel like real life friends. And if I’m hanging out with a real life friend when I’m 60 years old, we don’t just talk to each other. We do stuff together. We go play basketball, we go watch a movie. And so if everybody’s going to have an AI avatar, you want to be able to do stuff with them.”
By leveraging Genies’ tools and frameworks, developers can seamlessly integrate these assets into games, allowing them to focus more on crafting core game design and gameplay. The technology also opens up new genres of gameplay with intelligent avatars and UGC tools. Upon launch in 2026, these tools will empower developers to create high-quality, game-ready assets and new types of AI games.
“We’ve spent six years building for a future where AI, gaming, and immersive tech collide – and AI avatars become the connective tissue,” said Nigam. “Today, that means empowering developers to create dynamic, character-driven games through our Avatar Framework. But as AI becomes embedded in everyday life and people start using their own personal AI companions, we see a future where developers can use Genies, a visual layer for LLMs, to create new genres of games centered around AI avatars.”
Genies’ tech integration into the Unity Ecosystem is happening as avatars emerge as the next evolution of AI – living, customizable companions that go beyond chatbots. Genies’ Smart Avatars are personalized to look, talk, and behave the way players want, growing smarter and more emotionally responsive over time. Developers can create avatars for their games or let users bring their own. As AI shifts toward memory-based models, Unity and Genies turn AI into something you can see, interact, and play with.
“Game developers today are under pressure to move faster without sacrificing their creative edge,” said Adam Smith, senior vice president of product and engine at Unity, in a statement. “Integrating Genies’ AI avatars and UGC tools into Unity helps them streamline development, while unlocking creativity through rich, personalized games and paving the way for more advanced AI-powered workflows in the future.”
This means that developers do not have to generate their own high fidelity avatar system, or create their entire avatar system, he said. Devs can use this out of the box to generate AI avatars for players. On top of that, players can create their own user-generated content by customizing their own devs.
A big effort across six years
Nigam said that Genies will start disclosing customers for the smart avatars soon among game developers and publishers. Nigam said Unity has a big reach as a game engine, but ultimately Genies will be platform and engine agnostic so it can reach the widest possible audiences.
“The way that we’ve built our native avatar framework is that it can work across engines and platforms,” Nigam said.
It’s been a lot of work for the company’s 100 people to do. The avatar work has spanned six years, and Genies managed to raise $150 million for the project in 2022. After that, it stayed quiet and started building. One of the goals is to make it possible to have the AI avatars be compatible with other 3D items in the Unity Store.
So far, the company has focused on mobile first, but it will add experiences on the PC as well. But you can also expect to see it hit Unity and Unreal platforms, as well as WebGL, he said. The main targets as early adopters are likely to be on the younger side and so mobile made sense as the initial focus, Nigam said.
As far as the targets go, Nigam is being ambitious.
“This is targeting all developers within the Unity ecosystem. And the future of where this could go is being able to generate really interesting, smart AI avatar experiences for users to go play with their own AI avatar,” Nigam said. “In the future, we want to tap into the creativity and the minds of developers to help us create that new genre of gaming. But even in the very beginning, we hope to just make creating games with a very robust avatar system far more appealing and an effective unlock for developers today.”
What the partnership means
The Genies x Unity partnership will soon provide developers the ability to:
- Quickly & Easily Create High Quality Game-Ready Avatars And Assets For Games: Genies’ tools enable developers to transform ideas into customizable, game-ready assets ranging from avatars and fashion to accessories and props, all while accommodating a broad range of visual styles.
- Develop Innovative, AI-Powered Genres of Games: Genies’ tech stack allows developers to stay ahead, powering the wave of AI companion and UGC games hitting the market by providing the critical infrastructure that’s often the Achilles’ heel for indie and small-studio developers.
- Bring AI Avatar Systems Into Gameplay: Powered by LLMs and behavioral AI, Genies’ Smart Avatars are intelligent, expressive, and fully game-ready, giving developers the tools to seamlessly integrate hyper-personalized AI companions that drive dynamic interaction and play.
- Integrate UGC Tools For In-Game Content Creation: With Genies’ AI UGC tools, developers can let players generate real-time, game-ready content – like typing “rainbow lava cake with sprinkles” and seeing it appear as a playable 3D item others can use, remix, or react to.
- Access and Integrate Genies Login to Provide Players With a Persistent Avatar Identity Across Games: With Genies Login, players can bring their avatars, fashion, and inventory across any game built with the Genies Avatar Framework – no reuploading or recreating needed.
- Access Genies’ IP Network to Build With Top Game, Talent and Entertainment IP: Developers will have opportunities to tap into Genies’ network of IP partners, including top game and entertainment companies as well as celebrities and athletes to bring recognizable content directly into their games. This unlocks new ways to access and build with cultural IP, including the ability to publish within each IP’s own UGC games platform – known as a Party, all built on Genies’ tech stack.
Genies will launch a custom landing page in the Unity Asset Store later this year, followed by full integration into the Unity Editor in 2026. If you’re a developer interested in getting early access to Genies tools, you can apply here.
“I think that everyone shares the belief that the future of gaming is going to include elements of AI avatars that can build personalized relationships with you and also impact gameplay. And we’re just excited to be able to deliver what we think are the core components that can start to explore that genre, and we can give it to the developer community, so that, over time, they can help define this new genre with us,” Nigam said. “This is our foray into the AI gaming space, and we’ve invested over the last six years so that Genies’ avatar framework can be the visual layer for AI games in general.”
Genies is an AI avatar and gaming technology company powering the next era of digital experiences. Genies’ technology stack empowers developers and creators to seamlessly create and integrate AI-powered, game-ready Smart Avatars and user-generated-content (UGC) into any game or experience. Backed by investors including Bob Iger, Silver Lake, BOND, and NEA, Genies’ mission is to become the visual layer for LLM experiences.
“We’re excited about being able to provide our tech directly into the Unity Editor so that developers will be able to access us, generate LLM experiences, and see what AI games look like for everybody’s AI avatars to go play. It was a deal that obviously took some time to get done. But there’s huge conviction in the future on both sides,” Nigam said.
