Runway launched Runway Characters on March 9, 2026, a real-time video agent API that turns any image into a fully expressive, conversational digital persona. Built on Runway's world model GWM-1, it enables brands, developers, and creators to deploy interactive AI characters without any fine-tuning or custom training.

What Happened

Runway announced Characters as part of a broader push into interactive AI, following the launch of the Runway Characters product page and a companion blog post on building these characters responsibly. The product gives developers an API to create video-based conversational agents that can be embedded in apps and websites. Early enterprise users include BBC and Silverside.

Why It Matters

Until now, building a realistic interactive avatar required either expensive motion capture, custom model training, or settling for rigid, low-fidelity chatbot interfaces. Runway Characters changes the economics. You start with a single image, configure the character's voice, personality, and knowledge base through the API, and get a photorealistic or stylized persona that responds in real-time with natural facial expressions, eye movements, lip-sync, and gestures.

For creative professionals, this opens up customer-facing work that previously required significant technical infrastructure. An advertising agency could build a branded character for a campaign. A content creator could build a virtual host for live Q&A. An education startup could deploy an interactive tutor that looks and responds like a real person.

Key Details

  • Input: One reference image is all that is needed to generate a character in any visual style, from photorealistic humans to stylized mascots.
  • Capabilities: Natural facial expressions, eye movements, lip-syncing to voice, hand and body gestures during conversation, maintained across extended sessions.
  • Customization: Full control over voice, personality, knowledge base, and actions via API parameters.
  • Use cases: Customer support avatars, learning and development guides, branded marketing characters, real-time event hosts.
  • Access: Enterprise API at dev.runwayml.com. Consumer preset avatars are available in the Runway web app.
  • Early partners: BBC and Silverside are already live with the platform.

What to Do Next

If you are building client-facing experiences or interactive content, request enterprise API access at dev.runwayml.com. The three-step process is: define a character with an image, configure voice and personality, deploy via API into your product or website.

For a primer on the ethical considerations Runway is embedding into the product, read their companion piece on building interactive AI characters responsibly. It covers consent frameworks, safeguards against misuse, and guidelines for commercial deployment.