Convai

Convai is one of the leading platforms for adding conversational AI to interactive experiences — games, VR training simulations, virtual events, and metaverse environments. It's used by developers who want NPCs that can have real conversations, not just follow dialogue trees.

Conversational Character API

Convai's core product is a character API: define a character's backstory, personality, and knowledge, then call the API with player speech or text. The API returns a text response and, optionally, audio (via built-in TTS). Characters maintain conversation history, stay in role, and handle edge cases gracefully.

Knowledge Grounding

Characters can be grounded in custom knowledge bases — game lore documents, quest information, NPC backstories. When a player asks about the history of the kingdom, the NPC answers accurately from the lore document, not just from the AI's general training. This prevents hallucination and ensures narrative consistency.

Actions Framework

Beyond dialogue, Convai's Actions framework lets NPCs trigger in-game behaviors. When an NPC decides to give the player an item, open a door, or call for backup, these intentions can be mapped to game engine events. This bridges conversation and gameplay.

Multiplayer and Persistent Memory

Convai supports persistent memory: NPCs remember what players told them in previous sessions. A player who helped the blacksmith in Chapter 1 will be remembered when they return in Chapter 3. This creates the sense of a living world.

Integrations

Convai provides Unity and Unreal Engine plugins, a REST API, a Python SDK, and integrations with NVIDIA ACE (for avatar animation). Developers can deploy characters in games, VR experiences, WebGL environments, and video.

Pricing

Free: 100 interactions/day. Pro: $20/month (5,000 interactions). Enterprise: custom. Students and researchers get extended free access.