New partnership delivers sub-100ms, fully on-device avatars — unlocking scalable, lifelike AI characters for games, film and interactive media

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Neuphonic and Rapport (a division of Speech Graphics) today announced a partnership to deliver what they believe is among the first fully real-time, photorealistic digital human systems running entirely on standard CPU hardware.

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The collaboration combines Neuphonic’s ultra-low latency text-to-speech technology with Rapport, an interactive AI avatar role play platform powered by production-proven real-time facial and full-body animation technology from Speech Graphics, used in video games such as Call of Duty, The Last of Us Part II and Hogwarts Legacy. Together, the system generates natural voice, perfectly synchronised lip movement and emotionally responsive facial performance in under 100 milliseconds — enabling digital characters that can speak, react and express emotion instantly, with no perceptible delay.

This unlocks a new generation of interactive content, from live digital characters and real-time virtual production to responsive in-game and advertising experiences — helping overcome the uncanny valley and setting a new benchmark for realism, speed and accessibility in digital humans.

“We’re making real-time digital humans practical,” said Sohaib Ahmad, CEO and co-founder of Neuphonic. “For the first time, you can run a fully interactive, lifelike avatar instantly on everyday hardware. It shifts this from something that required high-end infrastructure to something that can run anywhere, and will unlock entirely new use cases across games, media and AI. It will move us closer to AI that feels like a natural, seamless extension of human interaction.”

Speech Graphics Ltd, a market leader in audio-driven animation, has spent over a decade developing technology for lifelike character performance across gaming and entertainment, including through tools used in major AAA titles, with applications now extending into real-time conversational experiences.

“Neuphonic was a natural partner because the technologies are highly complementary,” said Gregor Hofer, CEO and Co-founder of Rapport, a division of Speech Graphics Ltd. “They bring ultra-low latency, on-device voice that runs efficiently on CPU, and we bring production-proven, real-time facial animation. Together, this enables fully local digital humans that can speak, animate and respond instantly, without relying on the cloud, opening up new possibilities for performance, cost and deployment at scale. It’s a complete, real-time conversational experience.”

The technology opens up immediate applications across industries: in gaming, enabling NPCs that speak and react dynamically; in film and virtual production, allowing live voice and facial performance; and in advertising and customer engagement, powering interactive digital spokespeople. Beyond this, areas like education and virtual assistants stand to benefit from more engaging, responsive digital characters at scale.

Because the system runs entirely on-device, user data never leaves the environment, reducing latency, cost and infrastructure complexity while making real-time avatars deployable across billions of devices.

The partnership has been supported by Innovate UK’s Creative Catalyst programme, recognising the growing importance of real-time, AI-driven digital humans across creative and technology sectors.

ABOUT NEUPHONIC

Neuphonic builds high-performance voice AI models designed to run natively on consumer edge devices. By operating on CPU-only hardware, Neuphonic delivers real-time, low-latency voice interactions that are private by default, and radically cost-efficient. With over 1m open-source downloads, we are now partnering with leading OEMs to embed our technology directly into next-generation products. Learn more at neuphonic.com.

ABOUT SPEECH GRAPHICS LTD

Speech Graphics Ltd. develops real-time digital human technology across gaming, entertainment, enterprise organizations through Speech Graphics and Rapport.

Rapport is an interactive AI avatar role play platform designed to help organizations drive behavioral performance change through real-world conversation practice. Rapport enables lifelike, responsive interactions where teams can simulate high-stakes scenarios, receive feedback and improve outcomes across training, customer engagement and digital communication.

Designed for learning and development teams, sales leaders, marketers and innovators across industries including healthcare, hospitality and retail, Rapport makes it easy to create and scale interactive conversational simulations without the need for video production or complex setup. Organizations can learn by doing, while developers and agencies can build solutions for clients.

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Source: Neuphonic