Genies has been investing closely for this second. The culture-focused avatar expertise firm is revealing its user-generated content material instruments that allow anybody create customized AI avatars.
Genies raised $150 million in 2022, and it has been busy ever since constructing out the tech stack for what it calls Events, or gaming platforms pushed by AI avatars, user-generated content material, and personalised gameplay.
In an unique interview, Genies CEO Akash Nigam gave GamesBeat a glance beneath the hood at Genies’ expertise that has been within the works for years with the hope of powering the subsequent technology of digital experiences. Whereas the tech is established, Nigam has by no means proven it off to a journalist earlier than.
“As you may see, the standard of it is extremely excessive. So far as identical to the totally different sorts of enterprise mannequin that you would entertain right here, you may foresee one thing like a fee payment or one thing like that for people who find themselves creating these items,” Nigam mentioned. “I can’t reveal the companions that we have now onboarded, however they’re tier one. They’re like the largest ones in leisure and gaming.”
Nigam mentioned the corporate was pushed by the mantra the place anybody ought to be capable to create something. Genies’ tech has a set of UGC instruments that enable anybody to create any sort of AI avatar (together with style, props, behaviors, and personalities) and AI avatar experiences.
Every little thing created also needs to work with every part else, Nigam mentioned. The stack contains the Genies’ Avatar Framework which makes use of machine studying and pc graphics to make sure interoperability and compatibility throughout all consumer generated AI Avatars and AI Avatar experiences with limitless creativity.
“Now we have wager the enterprise on these mantras,” Nigam mentioned. “The rationale why we have now carried out it is because we consider we all know the place the way forward for the Web goes. We consider the way forward for the Web goes to be an intersection of three most important tendencies: AI, XR and gaming.”
The mix of those mantras not solely permits people to create limitless experiences, but additionally permits mental property homeowners to foster social gaming ecosystems pushed by UGC and AI Avatars – these interoperable ecosystems are what Genies calls Events.
Nigam mentioned he thought again to a query that I requested him 2019. He recalled, “You requested, ‘Why do you need to make a wager on avatars?’ And the largest purpose why we made a wager on avatars is as a result of we consider that it’s a prerequisite for the way forward for the Web. For those who think about AI XR and gaming all forming this new medium, an avatar is a prerequisite. You’re not going to speak to only a chat bot or chat 24/7 with an AI persona. You want some 3D asset of gaming, and avatars have been core to gaming eternally. We knew that this was going to develop and finally grow to be your individual experiences.”
Early adopters of Genies’ first gen avatars embody icons like Justin Bieber, Rihanna, J Balvin, Migos, and hundreds extra. With places of work in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Genies has raised $200 million to this point from notable buyers together with Silver Lake, BOND, NEA, and Bob Iger.
The mission and the imaginative and prescient
Genies is devoted to powering the digital id layer for subsequent technology experiences. As AI, gaming, and XR converge to characterize the web’s future, Genies avatar expertise acts because the connective tissue at this intersection. Genies seeks to create a world the place digital id, UGC, and AI-driven avatars outline the subsequent technology of cellular apps: personalised, adaptive, sensible, social gaming experiences.
This marks the end result of over 5 years of technological developments, Nigam mentioned.
Genies first took off through the pandemic, when celebrities couldn’t meet their followers in particular person. However these celebrities might create 3D avatars that they may use to make voice-based appearances at digital occasions the place they may entertain followers or in any other case meet with them in on-line settings.
Quickly, hundreds of celebrities caught on and created a brand new income stream that has endured even after the pandemic. It’s like how musicians discovered they may make some huge cash with music live shows within the wake of Spotify and Napster drying up report gross sales.
How far is that this going to go?
“More and more, you’re not going to point out up as Dean Takahashi. You’re going to point out up as a avatar of your self that represents your character as nicely,” he mentioned. “In 2025, we’ve seen personalised LLMs and the necessity for these ‘AI companions’ dramatically enhance. And so persons are beginning to transfer into the purposes of AI and persons are beginning to even say statements like, you recognize the typical variety of AI buddies that you should have within the subsequent 5 years goes to be higher than the variety of actual buddies, proper?”
Whereas AI companions are fairly static now, Nigam believes that may grow to be rather more full of life. It is possible for you to to talk with them, however they can even grow to be “recreation prepared,” he mentioned.
“They are going to be an asset you may play with,” he mentioned. “Consider Gen Alpha. Gen Alpha doesn’t synchronously hang around collectively on Instagram. They hang around collectively in locations like Roblox, like Fortnite, like these open world platforms. That is the way you communicate their language, proper? You don’t construct a relationship with Gen Alpha except you allow them to work together with you and your UGC.”
If there’s an organization on the market that’s related, Nigam believes it’s Epic Video games, as Tim Sweeney has painted an image of the metaverse many instances and he too foresees the intersection of AI, XR and gaming.
“In addition they consider that everyone’s going to make use of UEFN to create these Fortnite worlds the place folks hang around,” Nigam mentioned.
Nigam mentioned Genies is concentrated on open supply, pushed by AI avatars, UGC instruments and interoperable frameworks.
“Once you break down what precisely we’ve created, it was actually beneath this premonition the place we really feel like all people goes to be shifting into this new medium,” he mentioned.
And never each firm will get $1.5 billion handed to them, as Disney gave to Epic. However Genies is positioning itself to work with many attainable companions.
Understanding the shift in digital interplay
In the present day’s social media panorama is an area the place folks primarily eat media relatively than actively participating in social interactions. Conventional platforms like Instagram have grow to be one-sided, with manufacturers and customers broadcasting content material right into a passive abyss.
Nonetheless, UGC-driven gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite have emerged as dynamic social areas the place customers can authentically categorical themselves, hang around, and join in real-time. These “two manner dialogue” and UGC areas have grow to be extraordinarily in style with Gen Alpha and Gen Z, Nigam mentioned.
This generational shift underscores the rise of Events, Genies’ response to the demand for deeper, two-sided digital interactions. With UGC and interoperability on the core, Events allow manufacturers and audiences to co-create, work together, and have interaction in methods by no means seen earlier than.
Constructing a relationship between IP and the subsequent technology appears much like what Disney and Epic introduced in 2024, the place Disney will create social areas inside Fortnite worlds the place its characters can work together with followers in a gaming setting.
Constructing a significant relationship with Gen Alpha requires a deep understanding of their digital habits, preferences, and social behaviors. In contrast to earlier generations, Gen Alpha is rising up in an period the place digital interactions and personalization form their experiences.
To attach with them successfully, it’s important to talk their language, utilizing the cultural references, tendencies, and digital dialects that resonate with them. Assembly them the place they naturally have interaction is simply as vital—this implies immersing of their digital environments, comparable to gaming platforms, social networks, and digital worlds.
What’s a Celebration?
A Celebration is a next-generation UGC gaming ecosystem that permits IP homeowners to create totally customizable cellular platforms powered by AI avatars, personalised gameplay, and user-generated content material. With a Celebration, IP homeowners and creators can rework consumer engagement from passive consumption into energetic co-creation—enabling IP homeowners to construct distinctive and personalised relationships with their customers via AI, whereas empowering customers to play a task in creating the way forward for the model.
Nigam mentioned the corporate has plenty of massive purchasers, however it may’t disclose any of its present IP companions but. So the Celebration visuals on this story the written examples listed beneath spotlight a make-believe IP referred to as “Sweet Celebration” with a purpose to assist contextualize how this might work for any actual IP.
At its core, a Celebration is constructed on three key pillars: sensible avatars, user-generated content material (UGC), and interoperability.
Good avatars: Good avatars are AI-powered digital characters with distinct personalities, behaviors, and aesthetics designed to drive significant engagement via clever interactions – serving as the guts of any Celebration. Constructed on massive language fashions (LLMs) and behavioral AI, they’re way over chatbots—they’re clever, expressive, and adaptive recreation prepared belongings that may have interaction in real-time conversations and take part in dynamic game-play with customers.
Good avatars aren’t simply visually customizable—they suppose, be taught, categorical, and work together in a manner that makes them really alive in digital areas. The mind of every avatar permits for AI-driven gestures, real-time reactions, and voice using AI synthesis. Whereas in play, AI-driven physics allow seamless motion and interplay.
Instance use case for Events: For present IP, expertise IP, and even new IP, sensible avatars carry characters or personas to life, permitting them to work together, construct relationships, and dynamically play with customers all through Celebration experiences. Think about a sweet retailer IP launches their very own Sweet Celebration, they may rework their Bubblegum Bunny mascot into personified AI sensible avatars that embodies its cute character, foolish expressions, and refined gestures to dynamically chat and play video games with customers.
Builders can then leverage these IP-based sensible avatars to create and launch UGC video games with them in Sweet Celebration. Along with IP-driven sensible avatars, each consumer additionally generates their very own distinctive sensible avatar, which turns into a hyper-customized AI companion that can be utilized as a game-ready asset for dynamic play inside Celebration experiences, together with personalised conversations for recommendation, pleasant banter, insights, and extra.
Core tech that permits sensible avatars
Autogeneration and AIGC avatar creation: With Genies’ Avatar Autogeneration device, any consumer can routinely generate a stylized 3D avatar that resembles their likeness via uploaded pictures. This allows seamless avatar creation so customers can generate a extremely interesting, stylized avatar that appears identical to them that they’ll carry with them into Events, without having any form of technical experience.
Via Genies’ AIGC creation device, customers can even generate any bipedal avatar via textual content prompts, enabling them to create much more fantastical avatars that they’ll use in Events, comparable to animals, creatures, or characters.
Avatar customization & compatibility: A strong customization system permits customers to change each side of their avatar, from facial construction to clothes layers, making certain each avatar is exclusive and totally appropriate with totally different visible types. As soon as an avatar has been generated, customers can proceed to customise particular particulars—together with the face, pores and skin colour, physique form, coiffure, make-up, tattoos, garments, and equipment—to present them extra management over the feel and appear of their avatar.
AI persona creation: As soon as the look of a Good Avatar has been created, they are often skilled with AI to develop their very own distinctive personalities, which unlocks dynamic conversations and gameplay for customers all through Celebration experiences.
Behavioral AI: Utilizing sentiment evaluation, Good Avatars can animate in actual time, reacting with synchronized gestures, expressions, and actions primarily based on gameplay or dialog. This provides them a extra personalised, life-like habits, enabling them to smile, snigger, frown, wave, and even facepalm in actual time primarily based on the context of their conversations and interactions.
UGC customized animation pipeline: Customers can seize real-world actions via face and physique monitoring to generate personalised animations for any avatar. Utilizing built-in smartphone sensors or importing movies from their digicam roll, anybody can use Genies Digital camera to carry avatars to life with expressive animations, emotes, and gestures to really customise their behaviors in Events.
AI sensible avatar demo
Person-generated content material (UGC): Communities can actively form their Celebration expertise by creating video games, digital items, and avatar customizations, fostering deeper consumer participation. Events thrive on a steady inflow of user-generated video games, avatars, and digital items. Whereas IP homeowners retain management over content material moderation, communities actively form the expertise, enhancing each engagement and loyalty. Genies’ UGC tech is pushed by their mission of enabling anybody to create something, empowering creators of any talent stage to create.
Instance use case for Events: IP Homeowners can present their customers with Genies’ UGC instruments to unlock an infinite provide of customized belongings and video games for his or her Celebration, empowering followers and creators to make the most of their IP in distinctive methods and co-create with the model. Think about a creator producing their very own customized stylized Bubblegum Bunny purse and Cupcake costume that their avatar can put on or CandyRush wand their avatar can maintain. Think about a developer can create a Sugar Rush racing recreation that includes Bubblegum Bunny’s Good Avatar, permitting followers to play collectively in Sweet Celebration.
He mentioned that Events encompass sensible avatars, UGC video games, and UGC belongings.
“We need to lower the barrier to entry. Now we have a developer equipment. Now we have our dev platform instruments for folks to make use of to create heightened experiences. We wish there to be a no code manner, so {that a} 16 12 months previous fan of an IP can take our constructing blocks generate a extremely significant recreation,” he mentioned. “If somebody desires to create one thing in an anime fashion, they’ll. If any person else desires to create one thing in a Pixar fashion, in a totally totally different form and measurement, they’ll. These two want to have the ability to intersect with one another. And that’s all about UGC, all about interoperability. On the heart of all of it are sensible avatars.”
Core Tech That Allows UGC
UGC Belongings
AIGC Asset Pipeline: AI-generated content material (AIGC) instruments enable customers to create 3D belongings utilizing easy textual content or picture prompts. This minimizes technical boundaries, permitting customers to supply high-quality digital style, props, equipment, and even avatars that they’ll use all through Celebration experiences.
DIY Style Instruments: A classy set of style enhancing instruments allow customers to change and customise style gadgets, altering textures, including elaborations, and even layering a number of items for really distinctive digital style creations.
UGC Video games
Experiences SDK + No Code Growth Instruments: Equips builders and creators with the important instruments to create and launch Good Video games that assist UGC and interoperability. This allows real-time avatar interactions, seamless multiplayer gameplay, and protracted id throughout Celebration experiences.
Genies Experiences SDK permits builders to publish video games instantly into any Celebration app, making it a “tremendous app” (everybody’s personal Roblox). Genies no code improvement instruments will allow customers of all talent ranges to create and launch customized, personalised mini video games via a chat first expertise, leveraging Genies’ AIGC and Good Avatar applied sciences.
XR compatibility: Expands inventive potentialities by supporting immersive XR experiences on cellular and wearable gadgets.
Interoperability: To unlock the complete potential of a scalable, thriving UGC ecosystem, Genies’ frameworks are constructed for seamless compatibility and interoperability throughout all belongings and experiences. Interoperability ensures that any user-generated creation can work effortlessly with any avatar, expertise, or Celebration, driving their mission of every part works with every part.
Genies’ Avatar Framework leverages machine studying and pc graphics to offer limitless customization and compatibility of AI avatars, experiences, style, props, and extra. Whether or not you’re a developer integrating avatars into your recreation or a creator designing digital style and props, Genies’ framework ensures that your creations seamlessly adapt and performance throughout totally different experiences, environments, aesthetics, and platforms.
Instance use case for Events: As soon as a consumer designs their customized Bubblegum Bunny purse, CandyRush wand, or Cupcake costume, these belongings are routinely ready by our system for use throughout totally different avatars, environments, and experiences. The Cupcake costume could initially be created for a human-like avatar, however then can routinely regulate to suit a troll-shaped avatar, reshaping itself seamlessly.
A pair of cybernetic wings constructed for a robotic determine effortlessly adapts to work on a polar bear avatar. That’s interoperability in motion. A consumer can even take that outfit or prop designed for his or her Sweet-style trying recreation and convey it into an anime-style trying expertise the place every merchandise will routinely alter its look to match the brand new aesthetic. This provides your creations extra utility and worth since you should use them all through a wider vary of experiences and Events.
Core tech that permits interoperability
AutoRigging: After producing any 3D asset with Genies AIGC instruments or creating from scratch, customers can routinely convert their asset right into a fully-rigged, game-ready asset. Whether or not it’s a wearable, an avatar, or an interactive prop, the system adapts belongings to seamlessly combine throughout totally different Celebration environments with out requiring handbook rigging or changes.
Prop Retargeting: Genies prop retargeting expertise routinely adjusts all belongings, enabling them to be outfitted by or interacted with all avatars and seamlessly carried throughout Celebration experiences. A single merchandise, comparable to a jetpack or a hat, may be dynamically resized, outfitted, and performance otherwise relying on the context of the expertise.
Wearable Refitting: Any UGC asset uploaded into the system, whether or not style, coiffure, or accent, can routinely refit to be universally appropriate throughout avatars of any measurement, form, or fashion. Whether or not a consumer desires their avatar to have a hulk-like determine or they need to be as miniature as an elf, they’ll add a shirt that may configure seamlessly to both avatar throughout any Celebration, giving them a full vary of potentialities when creating and styling their avatar.
Asset Stylizer: Customized shader instruments be certain that all UGC seamlessly blends right into a Celebration’s aesthetic, whether or not it’s hyper-realistic, cartoon-like, or anime impressed. This allows IP companions and builders to have management over the feel and appear of UGC of their experiences.
Animation Retargeting: Genies animation retargeting and remapping expertise routinely makes all animations and emotes work seamlessly with all avatars, regardless of their measurement, form, or fashion.
Native Avatar Framework: Solves for true interoperability and efficiency throughout all gaming and rendering engines. Genies proprietary framework permits all avatar creations and experiences to work seamlessly throughout any recreation, platform, system, and engine – making certain creations keep high quality whereas enabling common compatibility.
Genies Login: A common entry level and id system permitting customers to effortlessly carry their avatar and stock of digital items throughout any Celebration expertise.
Events redefine how customers have interaction with digital areas, providing a mix of social connection, creativity, and play that goes past conventional gaming or social media platforms. Via Genies’ expertise stack, Events enable IP homeowners to empower their audiences to grow to be co-creators, shaping the evolution of the platform collectively.
By leveraging Genies’ expertise stack, IP homeowners and creators can construct social, interactive, and interoperable ecosystems powered by AI avatars and UGC.
Expertise community: Genies permits IP homeowners to collaborate with high expertise throughout music, sports activities, and leisure to drive distribution and unite fan bases in progressive methods. IP homeowners can pair up with expertise to carry each IP collectively for Celebration experiences – whereas creators and builders can leverage each units of IP to create video games and belongings.
Style will play a giant position within the UGC types and characters. Corporations comparable to Roblox, Epic Video games, Lego, Disney and extra are anticipated to dive into this house. And Genies desires to have the ability to get them off the bottom rapidly with sensible avatars and Events. These sorts of corporations will be capable to launch instruments that their followers can use to create high quality avatars in a no-code setting, he mentioned.
Nigam envisions one thing he calls the Mega stylizer that he believes will carry interoperability to the totally different worlds that shall be accessible. This sort of device is a part of your entire ecosystem that Genies is creating with Events.
“We consider that these Events are literally going to characterize among the future cellular apps on this ecosystem — the longer term cellular apps on this ecosystem will give attention to the sensible avatars. So the sensible avatars are those which can be in a position to act autonomously, but additionally affect gameplay as nicely.”
A brand new period of IP improvement
Up till now we’ve talked about present IP and present TALENT that may carry their IP to life in new methods.
Current IP – Established IP homeowners and types leveraging Genies’ tech stack to carry their IP to life via their very own Good Avatars and Celebration.
Expertise IP – Influencers, creators, or celebrities creating their very own digital id via their very own Good Avatars for Celebration experiences.
Nonetheless, as soon as all of those instruments are totally self-serve, this can usher in an period of making model new IP, enabling anybody to seamlessly create, deploy, and monetize IP all from their sofa.
New IP – Anybody can develop unique content material and characters leveraging Genies’ UGC tech to generate new, re-imagined, or fictional IP as Good Avatars for Celebration experiences.
Key parts of IP improvement course of
Generate sensible avatar IP
Know-how: Good Avatar Autogeneration
Objective: Anybody can create clever, customizable avatar-based mental property (IP). AI-powered instruments help within the creation course of, making it simpler for anybody to develop distinctive AI Good Avatars.
Develop IP
Know-how: No Code Sport Creation + Experiences SDK
Objective: This section entails refining and increasing the generated IP utilizing AI instruments and Genies’ Experiences SDK (Software program Growth Equipment) that permits customers to develop interactive and immersive experiences with sensible avatar IP.
Promote IP
Know-how: XR Digital camera
Objective: Customers can showcase and market their IP utilizing Genies Digital camera, a device designed to generate participating and customizable avatar content material with a purpose to drive distribution.
Monetize IP
Know-how: AIGC Digital Items Market
Objective: The ultimate step permits customers to commercialize their IP inside Genies’ Asset Market, the place digital belongings may be offered, traded, or utilized in varied experiences.
This method empowers people and companies to construct, promote, and revenue from their distinctive digital IP, increasing the probabilities for UGC-driven gaming, digital avatars, and digital economies.
New IP improvement instance:
Step 1: Generate Good Avatar IP: Alex, a university scholar and aspiring digital artist develops their very own Good Avatar persona round a personality they name “Neon Nova”. Utilizing Genies’ Autogeneration and AIGC instruments, coming into prompts like “Cyberpunk rockstar with neon tattoos and futuristic streetwear” they can develop the feel and appear of Neon Nova, and leveraging Genies’ character and behavioral AI instruments, they rework Neon Nova right into a charismatic however mysterious character, outfitted with its personal distinct look, voice, backstory, and persona.
Step 2: Develop IP: With Neon Nova prepared, Alex makes use of Genies’ No-Code Sport Creation instruments and Experiences SDK to construct an immersive “CyberCity Music Pageant” Celebration App expertise. On this digital occasion, Neon Nova performs interactive live shows and engages in quests with customers. Customers assist form Neon Nova’s evolving story via their interactions.
Step 3: Promote IP: Alex leverages Genies’ Digital camera to seize dynamic content material that includes Neon Nova performing songs and interacting with followers. Alex posts these shareable moments throughout social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X (Twitter), successfully rising Neon Nova’s fanbase via its on-line character and driving consumer adoption for the Celebration app expertise.
Step 4: Monetize IP: To monetize, Alex designs and sells unique digital merchandise and collectible equipment for Neon Nova utilizing Genies’ AIGC Digital Items Market. Followers buy Neon Nova-inspired digital style, music packs, and distinctive collectibles to make use of inside Celebration Apps or commerce amongst buddies, producing a income stream for Alex and increasing Neon Nova’s IP.
A no-code world
In previous years, round 2021, it used to take about eight weeks to generate a game-ready 3D character, Nigam mentioned. “As a result of we’ve created our personal proprietary information set over the previous 5 years, producing all of those Genies on this stylized motions, we will now auto generate them.”
Nigam confirmed me how he might create a fantastical character primarily based on a star.
“We used to make 20 avatars a 12 months,” he mentioned. “Now we will make 10,000 by Friday.”
For the time being, Genies helps bipedal avatars.
“Our imaginative and prescient is that this 12 months we’re going to have the ability to settle for quadrupeds, so canines and cats and so forth. However for proper now, a consumer can go forward and generate a mannequin as a recreation prepared asset of a bipedal turtle, Samurai, no matter you simply need to do,” he mentioned. “And this may be one other character {that a} consumer or anybody might use. The bottom line is that the style that can also be created on this ecosystem.”
Genies does all of the work on auto-rigging and animating the characters.
“An enormous side of this class has been empowering builders to create compelling experiences that may be revealed inside this Tremendous App, and likewise enabling non-technical children to have the ability to create actually enjoyable, personalised, stunning mini video games as nicely,” Nigam mentioned. “It may be carried out in a no-code manner, and the one purpose that is attainable as a result of we took so lengthy to do all of this work.”
Recap
This primary have a look at Genies’ AI avatars, recreation instruments, and UGC platform they’ve spent years constructing makes one factor clear: they’re not simply constructing avatars—they’re constructing the muse for the subsequent period of digital experiences.
Rooted in Genies two core mantras—“Anybody can create something” and “Every little thing works with every part”—the Genies tech stack fuses AI, gaming, and interoperability to unlock limitless creativity and connection. By combining AI-powered creation instruments, interoperability frameworks, and totally interactive, interoperable AI avatars, Genies is redefining how on-line identities, social video games, and digital creation may be dropped at life.
“We’ve already began to signal huge companions, which is tremendous rewarding. Clearly, it’s been a very long time, however we’ve already began to signal them on. We’re going to be making some bulletins about them over the subsequent few months,” Nigam mentioned. “There’s a complete technique that’s going to be put into place, relying on the companion. They’ll roll it out at totally different instances. We gained’t reveal that but, but it surely’s not far off.”
