CES 2026: Razer's AI gaming assistant, Project Ava, has a physical form now

Making AI companions and assistants feel more real, more physically present, has become one of the defining themes of CES this year. Razer is leaning into the moment by showcasing a more tangible version of Project Ava at CES 2026.

For those who need a refresher, Project Ava is Razer’s real-time gaming co-pilot: an AI assistant that essentially acts as a backseat gamer for you. While you’re playing, Ava — represented here by a character named Kira — offers live advice, tips, and commentary, overlaid directly on your screen as the game unfolds. It’s coaching, but with a personality and a face.

Razer technically showed off Project Ava at last year's CES, but that early demo was almost aggressively abstract. Instead of a character, it was mostly lines of code and system diagrams, with Razer walking through how the AI processed gameplay data and generated commands in real-time. Useful, sure, but not exactly something you could imagine sitting next to you during a late-night gaming session.

This year's version is clearly about making the concept feel less like a backend experiment and more like a presence. Whether that makes having an AI critique your gameplay more helpful or more annoying is another question entirely.

The new Project Ava hardware is a cylindrical desktop device with a transparent outer shell that displays a full-body, animated character inside. A camera is mounted at the top of the unit, facing outward, while the base features a perforated, patterned platform that gives the character a sense of depth. The bottom ring glows in Razer’s signature green and is branded with the company logo. Designed to sit next to a laptop or monitor, the device functions as a dedicated display for the AI assistant, keeping it separate from the game screen rather than overlaying it on gameplay.

Credit: Chance Townsend / Mashable

The character Razer demoed is called Kira, though she's far from the only option. Other presets include Zane, a sharply dressed, extremely large man with a massive snake tattoo running down his arm. Very much the kind of character that feels ripped straight from something you’d find on BookTok. According to Razer, these avatars will be customizable, including the ability to create your own from scratch. The company has also partnered with influencers to offer character likenesses, including esports pro Faker, signaling that Project Ava is as much about personality and fandom as it is about utility.

As with most CES demos, the room was aggressively loud, which made it hard for the AI to consistently pick up voice commands. We spent most of the demo parked in the Battlefield 6 loadout customization screen, asking Kira for advice on which guns and gadgets would make the most sense for the next round. Given the circumstances, it worked well enough, and the recommendations were solid for what they were (and yes, running frag grenades over stuns for the assault class is the correct call).

Outside of gaming, Razer says it has expanded Project Ava's capabilities beyond just backseat coaching. The company claims the AI can now offer advice on non-gaming tasks as well, with Ava still appearing as an on-screen overlay while you work. In practice, that means Project Ava is inching closer to the same general-purpose assistance other AI tools promise, but with gamer branding now.

There's still no release date for Project Ava, though Razer says it's targeting sometime this year.

Head to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest show in tech, where Mashable journalists are reporting live.