NVIDIA and Creative Assembly bring NVIDIA Ace and AI advisors to Total War

NVIDIA ACE, which is a toolset that leverages a range of AI-powered technologies to create digital humans, is something we've covered a few times here at TweakTown. After going hands-on with tech demos and short gaming experiences in the past, at CES 2026, NVIDIA announced that it has partnered with Creative Assembly to bring NVIDIA ACE to the Total War series.

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Starting with Total War: Pharaoh, NVIDIA ACE is implemented in-game to add an AI advisor that players can engage with via natural language, running locally on a GeForce RTX graphics card. For those who have played a Total War game or two, you'll no doubt be aware that the game's blend of Civilization-style empire management and epic real-time battles makes it one of the more complex strategy games on the market.

As detailed by Creative Assembly, the AI advisor, represented in-game by an era-correct NPC, can be called on to answer questions related to the game as well as offer advice on strategy, explain why one of your settlements just revolted, and countless other situations. This implementation of an in-game AI assistant has been trained on all the ins and outs of Total War: Pharaoh.

• Read more: NVIDIA unlocks next-gen gameplay with on-device AI: AI teammates and improved NPCs

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What makes NVIDIA ACE impressive is that it includes AI tools for turning what could have been a simple GPT-like text response into a fully modeled, animated, voiced, and lip-synched character in real time. Of all the NVIDIA ACE demos we've seen so far, this one feels the most practical, as it makes sense as a dynamic replacement for a chunky strategy game FAQ.

Creative Assembly notes that it's using Total War: Pharaoh as a test bed for the technology and will begin rolling out this update to select members of the Total War community in the coming months to fine-tune the experience and eventually add it to more titles - like, perhaps, the upcoming Total War: Warhammer 40,000.