Genies Launches User Tools for Custom AI Avatar Creation

Genies has been strategically building towards this pivotal moment. The culture-driven avatar technology firm is unveiling its user-generated content tools, empowering anyone to design custom AI avatars.

Following a $150 million funding round in 2022, the company has focused on developing its proprietary tech stack for what it terms "Parties"—gaming environments powered by AI avatars, user-generated content, and personalized gameplay.

In an exclusive discussion, Genies CEO Akash Nigam provided GamesBeat with an inside look at the sophisticated technology the company has refined over several years, aiming to drive the next wave of digital interaction. While the underlying technology is mature, this marks the first time Nigam has demonstrated it to a journalist.

"As evident, the output quality is exceptionally high. Regarding potential business models, one could envision commission structures for creators developing these experiences," Nigam explained. "While I cannot disclose our current partners, they represent top-tier entities—the most prominent names in entertainment and gaming."

Nigam emphasized the company's foundational principle that everyone should possess creative freedom. Genies' technology suite includes comprehensive UGC tools enabling users to develop diverse AI avatars—complete with fashion elements, accessories, behaviors, and personalities—along with immersive AI avatar experiences.

He further noted that all creations must maintain cross-compatibility. The platform incorporates the Genies Avatar Framework, which employs machine learning and computer graphics to ensure seamless interoperability across all user-generated AI avatars and experiences, fostering boundless creativity.

"We've committed our entire business strategy to these principles," Nigam stated. "Our conviction stems from understanding the internet's evolutionary trajectory. We foresee the future digital landscape emerging from the convergence of three dominant trends: artificial intelligence, extended reality, and gaming."

The synergy of these principles not only enables individual creators to develop unlimited experiences but also allows intellectual property holders to cultivate social gaming ecosystems fueled by UGC and AI avatars. These interconnected environments constitute what Genies identifies as Parties.

Reflecting on a question from 2019, Nigam recalled: "You inquired about our strategic focus on avatars. The fundamental reason is our belief that avatars constitute an essential prerequisite for the internet's future. As AI, XR, and gaming merge into a new medium, avatar presence becomes mandatory. Beyond conversational AI interfaces, users require three-dimensional gaming assets—and avatars have perpetually remained central to gaming. We anticipated this would expand into personalized experiential domains."

Early adopters of Genies' first-generation avatars include cultural icons like Justin Bieber, Rihanna, J Balvin, and Migos, alongside thousands of other users. With operational bases in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Genies has secured $200 million in funding from distinguished investors including Silver Lake, BOND, NEA, and Bob Iger.

Mission and Vision

Genies is dedicated to establishing the digital identity infrastructure for next-generation experiences. As artificial intelligence, gaming, and extended reality converge to shape the internet's future, Genies' avatar technology serves as the connective framework at this intersection. The company envisions a world where digital identity, user-generated content, and AI-driven avatars redefine mobile applications through personalized, adaptive, intelligent social gaming experiences.

This unveiling represents the culmination of more than five years of technological development, according to Nigam.

Genies initially gained traction during the pandemic when physical fan interactions became impossible. Celebrities adopted 3D avatars for voice-enabled appearances at virtual events, creating new avenues for fan engagement through online platforms.

The model proved sustainable, with thousands of celebrities establishing persistent revenue streams post-pandemic—similar to how musicians transitioned to concert revenues following the decline of traditional record sales.

Regarding future expansion, Nigam projected: "Increasingly, you won't appear as Dean Takahashi but as an avatar embodiment reflecting your personality. By 2025, we anticipate widespread adoption of personalized large language models and growing demand for AI companions. People are beginning to speculate that within five years, individuals may maintain more AI friendships than human relationships."

While current AI companions remain relatively static, Nigam believes they will evolve into dynamic entities. Beyond conversational capabilities, they will become "game-ready" interactive assets.

"They'll transform into playable assets," he elaborated. "Consider Generation Alpha—they don't congregate synchronously on Instagram but prefer platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. To communicate effectively with this demographic, you must enable interaction through user-generated content."

When asked about comparable companies, Nigam referenced Epic Games, noting that Tim Sweeney has frequently articulated a similar vision of AI, XR, and gaming convergence.

"Epic also envisions users leveraging UEFN to create Fortnite worlds as social spaces," Nigam observed.

He clarified that Genies prioritizes open-source principles, driven by AI avatars, UGC tools, and interoperable frameworks.

"Our development roadmap emerged from the anticipation that everyone will migrate toward this new medium," he explained.

While not every company receives Disney's $1.5 billion investment in Epic, Genies is establishing partnerships with multiple potential collaborators.

The Evolution of Digital Interaction

Contemporary social media landscapes primarily facilitate content consumption rather than active social engagement. Traditional platforms like Instagram have become unilateral broadcasting channels where brands and users transmit content to passive audiences.

Conversely, UGC-driven gaming platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite have evolved into vibrant social environments where users genuinely express themselves, socialize, and connect in real-time. These interactive, UGC-enabled spaces have gained tremendous popularity among Generations Alpha and Z, according to Nigam.

This generational transition highlights the emergence of Parties—Genies' solution for deeper, reciprocal digital interactions. With UGC and interoperability as foundational elements, Parties enable brands and audiences to co-create, interact, and engage through unprecedented methods.

Establishing connections between intellectual property and younger generations resembles the Disney-Epic collaboration announced in 2024, where Disney will create social spaces within Fortnite enabling character interactions with fans through gaming environments.

Cultivating meaningful relationships with Generation Alpha requires profound understanding of their digital behaviors, preferences, and social patterns. Unlike preceding generations, Gen Alpha matures in an era where digital interactions and personalization fundamentally shape experiences.

Effective engagement necessitates communicating through their cultural references, trends, and digital vernacular while participating in their natural habitats—gaming platforms, social networks, and virtual worlds.

Understanding Parties

A Party constitutes a next-generation UGC gaming ecosystem that enables intellectual property owners to create fully customizable mobile platforms powered by AI avatars, personalized gameplay, and user-generated content. Through Parties, IP owners and creators can transform user engagement from passive consumption into active co-creation—establishing unique relationships with users via AI while empowering them to contribute to brand evolution.

Nigam confirmed several major clients though current IP partnerships remain confidential. The visual examples and written scenarios in this article employ a fictional "Candy Party" IP to demonstrate potential applications for real intellectual property.

Parties rest on three foundational pillars: smart avatars, user-generated content, and interoperability.

Smart Avatars: These AI-powered digital characters possess distinct personalities, behaviors, and aesthetics designed to facilitate meaningful engagement through intelligent interactions—serving as the core of any Party. Built on large language models and behavioral AI, they transcend conventional chatbots to become expressive, adaptive game-ready assets capable of real-time conversation and dynamic gameplay participation.

Smart avatars extend beyond visual customization—they demonstrate cognitive abilities, learning capacity, emotional expression, and interactive capabilities that animate digital spaces. Their AI-driven architecture enables gesture generation, real-time reactions, and voice synthesis through AI. During gameplay, AI-powered physics ensure fluid movement and interaction.

Party Application Example: For established IP, talent-based IP, or new intellectual property, smart avatars animate characters or personas, enabling relationship-building and dynamic user interactions throughout Party experiences. Imagine a confectionery brand launching a Candy Party where their Bubblegum Bunny mascot becomes personified through AI smart avatars embodying its charming personality, playful expressions, and subtle gestures to interact and play games with users.

Developers can subsequently leverage these IP-based smart avatars to create and launch UGC games within the Candy Party ecosystem. Beyond IP-driven smart avatars, each user generates a unique smart avatar that functions as a hyper-customized AI companion—a game-ready asset for dynamic Party experiences alongside personalized conversations providing advice, friendly interaction, and insights.

Core Technology Powering Smart Avatars

Autogeneration and AIGC Avatar Creation: Through Genies' Avatar Autogeneration tool, users can automatically produce stylized 3D avatars resembling their likeness via uploaded images. This streamlines avatar creation, enabling users to generate appealing, personalized avatars for Party participation without technical expertise.

Using Genies' AIGC creation tool, users can also generate bipedal avatars through text prompts, facilitating the creation of fantastical avatars—including animals, creatures, or characters—for Party integration.

Avatar Customization & Compatibility: A comprehensive customization system allows users to modify every avatar aspect, from facial structure to clothing layers, ensuring uniqueness and full compatibility across visual styles. Following generation, users can refine specific details—including facial features, skin tone, body shape, hairstyle, makeup, tattoos, clothing, and accessories—for enhanced creative control.

AI Persona Development: After establishing a Smart Avatar's appearance, AI training enables personality development, unlocking dynamic conversations and gameplay throughout Party experiences.

Behavioral AI: Through sentiment analysis, Smart Avatars animate in real-time with synchronized gestures, expressions, and movements responsive to gameplay or conversation context. This creates lifelike behaviors—smiling, laughing, frowning, waving, or facepalming—based on interaction circumstances.

UGC Custom Animation Pipeline: Users can capture real-world movements via face and body tracking to generate personalized avatar animations. Using smartphone sensors or uploaded videos, anyone can utilize Genies Camera to animate avatars with expressive movements, emotes, and gestures for customized Party behaviors.

AI Smart Avatar Demonstration

User-Generated Content (UGC): Communities actively shape Party experiences by creating games, digital goods, and avatar customizations, fostering deeper participation. Parties thrive on continuous UGC influx—games, avatars, and digital items. While IP owners maintain content moderation control, communities influence experiences, enhancing engagement and loyalty. Genies' UGC technology embodies their mission of universal creative empowerment across skill levels.

Party Application Example: IP owners can provide users with Genies' UGC tools to unlock infinite custom assets and games for their Party, enabling fans and creators to utilize IP innovatively through brand co-creation. Imagine creators designing custom Bubblegum Bunny purses, Cupcake dresses for avatar wear, or CandyRush wands for avatar use. Developers could create Sugar Rush racing games incorporating Bubblegum Bunny's Smart Avatar, allowing collaborative fan gameplay within Candy Party.

He clarified that Parties comprise smart avatars, UGC games, and UGC assets.

"We aim to reduce entry barriers through our developer kit and platform tools for creating enhanced experiences. Our no-code approach enables 16-year-old IP fans to use building blocks for meaningful game creation," he explained. "Whether users prefer anime or Pixar styles with different shapes and sizes, our system ensures cross-compatibility. This exemplifies UGC and interoperability with smart avatars at the center."

Core Technology Enabling UGC

UGC Assets

AIGC Asset Pipeline: AI-generated content tools enable 3D asset creation through simple text or image prompts. This reduces technical barriers, allowing users to produce high-quality digital fashion, props, accessories, or avatars for Party experiences.
DIY Fashion Tools: Advanced fashion editing tools facilitate item modification and customization—changing textures, adding embellishments, or layering multiple pieces for unique digital fashion creations.

UGC Games

Experiences SDK + No-Code Development Tools: Equips developers and creators with essential tools for creating Smart Games supporting UGC and interoperability. This enables real-time avatar interactions, seamless multiplayer gameplay, and persistent identity across Party experiences.

The Genies Experiences SDK allows direct game publication into any Party app, creating a "super app" environment (comparable to personalized Roblox instances). No-code development tools will empower users across skill levels to create and launch custom mini-games through chat-first experiences leveraging Genies' AIGC and Smart Avatar technologies.

XR Compatibility: Expands creative possibilities through immersive extended reality experiences on mobile and wearable devices.

Interoperability: To unlock scalable, thriving UGC ecosystems, Genies' frameworks ensure seamless compatibility and interoperability across all assets and experiences. This guarantees that user-generated creations function effortlessly with any avatar, experience, or Party, actualizing their "everything works with everything" mission.

The Genies Avatar Framework employs machine learning and computer graphics to provide limitless customization and compatibility for AI avatars, experiences, fashion, props, and related elements. Whether developers integrate avatars into games or creators design digital fashion, the framework ensures seamless adaptation across different experiences, environments, aesthetics, and platforms.

Party Application Example: When users design custom Bubblegum Bunny purses, CandyRush wands, or Cupcake dresses, the system automatically prepares these assets for cross-environment use. A Cupcake dress created for human-like avatars automatically adjusts for troll-shaped figures through seamless reshaping. Cybernetic wings designed for robots adapt effortlessly for polar bear avatars—demonstrating interoperability. Users can transfer outfits or props from Candy-style games to anime-style experiences where items automatically conform to new aesthetics, increasing creation utility and value across experiences and Parties.

Core Technology Enabling Interoperability

AutoRigging: Following 3D asset generation via AIGC tools or manual creation, users automatically convert assets into fully-rigged, game-ready elements. The system adapts wearables, avatars, or interactive props for seamless Party integration without manual rigging.

Prop Retargeting: Genies' prop retargeting technology automatically adjusts all assets for equipping or interaction across avatars and Party experiences. Single items like jetpacks or hats dynamically resize, equip, and function according to experience context.

Wearable Refitting: Any uploaded UGC asset—fashion, hairstyles, or accessories—automatically refits for universal compatibility across avatars of any size, shape, or style. Users uploading shirts for hulk-like or elf-sized avatars receive seamless configuration across Parties, enabling full creative possibilities.

Asset Stylizer: Custom shader tools ensure all UGC blends seamlessly into Party aesthetics—whether hyper-realistic, cartoon-like, or anime-inspired. This provides IP partners and developers with UGC appearance control.

Animation Retargeting: Genies' animation retargeting and remapping technology ensures all animations and emotes function seamlessly across avatars regardless of size, shape, or style.

Native Avatar Framework: Solves true interoperability and performance challenges across gaming and rendering engines. Genies' proprietary framework enables avatar creations and experiences to function seamlessly across games, platforms, devices, and engines—maintaining quality while ensuring universal compatibility.

Genies Login: A universal entry point and identity system allowing users to effortlessly transport avatars and digital goods inventories across Party experiences.

Parties redefine digital space engagement, offering social connection, creativity, and play beyond traditional gaming or social media. Through Genies' technology stack, Parties empower IP owners to transform audiences into co-creators who collectively shape platform evolution.

Leveraging Genies' technology, IP owners and creators build social, interactive, interoperable ecosystems powered by AI avatars and UGC.

Talent Network: Genies enables IP owners to collaborate with top talent across music, sports, and entertainment to drive distribution and unify fan bases through innovative methods. IP owners can partner with talent for combined IP Party experiences while creators and developers leverage both IP sets for game and asset creation.

Fashion will significantly influence UGC styles and characters. Companies like Roblox, Epic Games, Lego, and Disney are expected to enter this space. Genies aims to accelerate their entry through smart avatars and Parties, enabling fan-quality avatar creation in no-code environments.

Nigam envisions a "Mega Stylizer" tool to facilitate interoperability across available worlds—a component of the comprehensive ecosystem Genies is developing through Parties.

"We believe these Parties will represent future mobile applications within this ecosystem—apps centered on smart avatars capable of autonomous action and gameplay influence."

A New Era of IP Development

Previous discussions focused on existing IP and talent revitalizing intellectual property through new channels.
Existing IP – Established IP owners and brands utilizing Genies' tech stack to animate their intellectual property through proprietary Smart Avatars and Parties.

Talent IP – Influencers, creators, or celebrities developing digital identities through personalized Smart Avatars for Party experiences.

Once these tools achieve full self-service capability, they will inaugurate an era of original IP creation—enabling anyone to seamlessly develop, deploy, and monetize intellectual property remotely.

New IP – Anyone can generate original content and characters using Genies' UGC technology to create new, reimagined, or fictional IP as Smart Avatars for Party experiences.

Essential IP Development Components

Generate Smart Avatar IP

Technology: Smart Avatar Autogeneration

Purpose: Enables universal creation of intelligent, customizable avatar-based intellectual property. AI-powered tools streamline development, allowing anyone to create unique AI Smart Avatars.

Develop IP

Technology: No-Code Game Creation + Experiences SDK
Purpose: This phase involves refining and expanding generated IP using AI tools and the Genies Experiences SDK (Software Development Kit), enabling interactive, immersive experiences with smart avatar IP.

Promote IP

Technology: XR Camera

Purpose: Users can showcase and market their IP through Genies Camera—a tool designed for generating engaging, customizable avatar content to drive distribution.

Monetize IP

Technology: AIGC Digital Goods Marketplace

Purpose: The final stage enables IP commercialization within Genies' Asset Marketplace, where digital assets can be sold, traded, or utilized across experiences.

This ecosystem empowers individuals and businesses to build, promote, and profit from unique digital IP, expanding possibilities for UGC-driven gaming, digital avatars, and virtual economies.

New IP Development Example:

Step 1: Generate Smart Avatar IP: Alex, a college student and aspiring digital artist, develops a Smart Avatar persona named "Neon Nova." Using Genies' Autogeneration and AIGC tools with prompts like "Cyberpunk rockstar with neon tattoos and futuristic streetwear," they establish Neon Nova's visual identity. Leveraging personality and behavioral AI tools, they instill a charismatic, mysterious personality with distinct appearance, voice, backstory, and persona.

Step 2: Develop IP: With Neon Nova established, Alex utilizes Genies' No-Code Game Creation tools and Experiences SDK to build an immersive "CyberCity Music Festival" Party App experience. In this virtual event, Neon Nova performs interactive concerts and engages users through quests. User interactions help shape Neon Nova's evolving narrative.

Step 3: Promote IP: Alex employs Genies' Camera to capture dynamic content featuring Neon Nova performing songs and interacting with fans. These shareable moments posted across TikTok, Instagram, and X (Twitter) grow Neon Nova's fanbase through online personality, driving Party app adoption.

Step 4: Monetize IP: For monetization, Alex designs and sells exclusive digital merchandise and collectible accessories for Neon Nova using Genies' AIGC Digital Goods Marketplace. Fans purchase Neon Nova-inspired digital fashion, music packs, and unique collectibles for Party App use or peer trading, generating revenue streams while expanding the IP.

The No-Code Environment

Reflecting on earlier development cycles around 2021, Nigam noted that creating game-ready 3D characters previously required approximately eight weeks. "Through proprietary dataset development over five years—generating stylized avatars and motions—we now achieve automated generation."

Nigam demonstrated fantastical character creation based on celebrity inspiration.

"Our previous capacity was 20 avatars annually," he revealed. "Current capabilities allow 10,000 avatars by Friday."

Currently, Genies supports bipedal avatars exclusively.

"Our roadmap includes quadruped support for dogs, cats, and similar creatures this year. Currently, users can generate game-ready bipedal turtle models, samurai, or any desired character," he explained. "The critical element is fashion creation within this ecosystem."

Genies automates character rigging and animation processes.

"A crucial aspect involves empowering developers to create compelling experiences publishable within this Super App, while enabling non-technical youth to develop fun, personalized mini-games," Nigam stated. "No-code implementation became possible through extensive development work."

Summary

This initial examination of Genies' AI avatars, gaming tools, and UGC platform developed over years clarifies their ambition: they're constructing the foundational infrastructure for the next digital era.

Anchored in Genies' core principles—"Anyone can create anything" and "Everything works with everything"—the technology stack integrates AI, gaming, and interoperability to unleash unlimited creativity and connection. By combining AI-powered creation tools, interoperability frameworks, and fully interactive AI avatars, Genies is reimagining online identities, social games, and digital creation.

"We've commenced partnerships with major entities—extremely rewarding given the extended development timeline. Announcements will follow over coming months," Nigam confirmed. "Deployment strategies will vary by partner with different rollout schedules. While specifics remain confidential, implementation proximity is assured."