Avatars as the Interface: Why Every App Will Soon Have an AI Personality

Akash Nigam, CEO of Genies, predicts that every app, game, website, and celebrity will eventually have an AI personality — and his company has been building the visual layer to bring those personalities to life since 2017. Genies started with a strategic IP land grab in entertainment, partnering with the NBA, MLB, Sanrio, Kakao, and Naver Webtoon. The logic was simple: get culture on board first, with built-in fan bases, and everything else follows. Now, the same framework that gives AI personalities a face can generate a stylized avatar from a single photo in ten minutes, supporting any art style from Disney-Pixar to anime. Crucially, these avatars move across environments because they are built on a game engine, not streamed as video. If AI personalities are going to be everywhere, they will need a face — and Genies aims to provide it.