Real-time video chat with Tavus AI

Real-time AI video chat is moving from novelty to necessity.

The way we communicate with technology is undergoing a fundamental shift. What once felt like science fiction—face-to-face conversations with emotionally intelligent AI—has quickly moved from a novelty to a necessity for teams that want to scale meaningful, humanlike interactions. In a world where text-only chatbots often fall short on empathy and engagement, businesses are recognizing that real-time video chat bots are the next leap forward.

According to recent chatbot statistics for 2025, nearly 1.5 million people engaged with a chatbot last year, but the majority of those interactions lacked the nuance and trust that only visual, real-time presence can deliver.

Tavus is at the forefront of this evolution. By turning static interfaces into live, human-feeling video conversations, Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface (CVI) enables organizations to deliver emotionally intelligent, scalable interactions that feel as natural as talking to a real person. CVI is not just another video API—it’s an end-to-end pipeline that sees, hears, understands, and responds in real time, bridging the gap between machine efficiency and human connection.

CVI is powered by three core models:

 
•    Phoenix-3: Delivers photorealistic rendering with full-face micro-expressions, ensuring every conversation feels authentic and present.  
 
•    Raven-0: Provides contextual perception, interpreting not just words but intent, body language, and environmental cues for adaptive, emotionally aware responses.  
 
•    Sparrow-0: Powers natural turn-taking with sub-600 ms latency, eliminating awkward pauses and interruptions common in traditional chatbots.  

Why does this matter? Because the impact is measurable. Teams using real-time AI video chat bots see higher engagement, deeper trust, and stronger conversion rates compared to text-only chat. For example, Final Round AI reported a 50% boost in user engagement, 80% higher retention, and twice as fast response times after integrating Sparrow-0 into their mock interview platform. These results echo broader industry findings that emotionally intelligent, face-to-face AI drives longer, richer conversations and more meaningful outcomes (see data on the benefits of chatbots).

Getting started is straightforward:

 
•    Choose from a library of stock or custom replicas to match your brand or use case.  
 
•    Define a persona with a knowledge base, objectives, and guardrails for safe, on-brand interactions.  
 
•    Embed CVI via React or iframe and start live video calls with a single API endpoint.  

With Tavus, going live is fast and flexible—whether you’re building a recruiting tool, a customer concierge, or a next-generation learning platform. To see how Tavus is shaping the future of conversational video AI, visit the Tavus homepage for an overview of the platform’s mission and capabilities.

Why real time feels human with Tavus

Human realism in every frame

What makes a real-time AI video chat bot feel genuinely human? With Tavus, it starts at the pixel level. The Phoenix-3 model renders AI humans in crisp 1080p, delivering pixel-perfect lip-sync and full-face micro-expressions. This means every blink, smile, and subtle shift in expression is captured and rendered in real time, preserving the unique identity of each persona. The result is a sense of presence—users feel like they’re speaking with a real person, not a digital puppet.

Unlike traditional avatar systems that animate only the mouth or lower face, Phoenix-3’s full-face animation bridges the “uncanny valley.” By mirroring the entire spectrum of human emotion, Tavus builds trust and keeps users engaged longer. This design insight is backed by research showing that full-face realism directly improves time-on-task and user satisfaction. For a deeper dive into the science behind lifelike conversational AI, see what makes conversational AI human like.

Key capabilities include:

 
• Choose from 100+ stock replicas or train your own from just two minutes of video
 
• Support for over 30 languages, with accent preservation
 
• Bring-your-own-audio for custom generation use cases

Perception that understands context

Real human conversation is more than words—it’s about reading the room, interpreting intent, and responding to subtle cues. Raven-0, Tavus’s perception model, brings contextual awareness to every session. It interprets natural language, body language, and environmental signals, allowing the AI to adapt its tone and guidance in real time. Ambient awareness means the AI can detect behavioral and environmental changes, trigger function calls, and capture visual context for analytics or compliance.

Perception features include:

 
• Real-time visual analysis for adaptive, in-session guidance
 
• Multi-channel inputs: camera, screenshare, and more
 
• Trusted by ACTO Health to adapt patient interactions dynamically

Developers can prompt Raven-0 to watch for specific gestures or events, unlocking new possibilities for analytics and automation. This level of perception is what sets Tavus apart from static video bots or text-based chat—learn more in the replica overview.

Conversation that flows naturally

No one likes awkward pauses or robotic interruptions. Sparrow-0, Tavus’s turn-taking model, ensures conversations flow with sub-one-second responsiveness (typically under 600 ms). It senses when a user has finished speaking and responds with natural pacing, avoiding the stilted back-and-forth common in traditional ASR/VAD systems. This creates a rhythm that feels intuitive—users engage more, stay longer, and have richer conversations.

The impact is measurable: Final Round AI reported a 50% boost in engagement and 80% higher retention for mock interviews powered by Tavus. When AI conversations feel human, people want to keep talking. For a broader perspective on how Tavus is redefining real-time digital interaction, see what AI humans are and aren't.

Together, Phoenix-3, Raven-0, and Sparrow-0 deliver authenticity, awareness, and pace—the core ingredients for a real-time AI video chat bot people actually want to talk to.

From bot to AI human: build and ship in minutes

Pick your face: stock or custom replica

Moving from a basic chatbot to a lifelike AI human is now a matter of minutes, not months. With Tavus, you can start with a professionally optimized stock replica—choose from over 100 options—or train a custom one using a short, consented training video. Every AI human is rendered in crisp 1080p, and paid plans remove watermarks for a polished, on-brand experience. Even on the free plan, you get 25 minutes of Conversational Video and 5 minutes of Video Generation, with support for more than 30 languages and scalable concurrency limits as your needs grow.

This approach is a leap beyond traditional chatbots, which often lack the nuance and presence needed for real engagement. As highlighted in recent research on chatbot technology, the ability to distinguish questions and provide automatic, context-aware responses is essential—but Tavus takes it further by adding a human layer to every interaction.

Define your brain: persona, knowledge, and guardrails

Every AI human starts with a persona that sets its behavior, tone, and goals. Attach a Knowledge Base—powered by Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)—to ground answers in your own documentation, product data, or internal knowledge. Responses arrive in as little as 30 milliseconds, up to 15× faster than typical solutions, ensuring conversations feel instant and natural.

Use Objectives to guide users through structured flows like health intakes or HR interviews, and set Guardrails to enforce compliance and brand safety across every session. Memories can be toggled on for persistent context, making each interaction smarter over time.

For more on how guardrails ensure safe, compliant AI interactions, see the Tavus Guardrails documentation.

Where real-time video chat outperforms text

Recruiting and training

Text-based chatbots have long been used for screening and training, but they often fall short when it comes to capturing the nuance, presence, and engagement needed for high-stakes interactions. Real-time AI video chat, powered by Tavus, transforms these experiences by delivering face-to-face, emotionally intelligent conversations that scale.

For example, organizations can deploy an AI Interviewer persona to conduct first-round interviews or facilitate mock interviews and role-plays for learning and development. This approach not only increases throughput but also delivers measurable improvements in candidate and learner engagement.

Use cases and results include:

 
• AI Interviewer personas for scalable first-round screening
 
• Mock interviews and L&D role-plays with lifelike feedback
 
• Significant lifts in engagement and completion rates—Final Round AI reported a 50% boost in engagement, 80% higher retention, and 2x faster response timing using Sparrow-0 for realistic practice conversations

Structured interviews are further enhanced by Objectives, which keep conversations on track and ensure consistency. Meanwhile, Raven-0’s perception capabilities can detect distractions or the presence of additional participants, nudging candidates as needed to maintain fairness and focus. This level of contextual awareness is simply not possible with text-only bots. For a deeper dive into how real-time video chat is redefining conversational AI, see this research overview on AI video chat as a new paradigm for real-time communication.

Customer experience and commerce

In customer experience and commerce, real-time video chatbots unlock new levels of personalization and trust. Instead of static FAQs or text chat, embedded AI concierges can guide shoppers on product pages, provide live assistance at kiosks, or serve as humanlike support portals that deflect tickets and resolve issues on the spot. This face-to-face approach reduces friction and increases satisfaction, especially in high-touch environments like hospitality check-in or retail wayfinding.

High-impact applications include:

 
• Embedded concierge on product pages for live shopping guidance
 
• Kiosks and concierge desks offering real-time, humanlike support
 
• Support portals that deflect tickets and resolve customer needs instantly

To maximize conversion, pairing persona Guardrails with a robust product Knowledge Base ensures that answers are precise, compliant, and always on-brand—far surpassing the limitations of static text chat. For teams looking to integrate these capabilities, the Conversational AI Video API documentation provides a comprehensive introduction to building dynamic, real-time video agents.

Health, education, and coaching

Real-time video chatbots also excel in health, education, and coaching scenarios where continuity, empathy, and context matter most. In telehealth, AI agents can handle patient intake with ambient awareness, while in education, persistent Memories enable tutors to deliver personalized support across sessions. Coaching applications benefit from goal-driven objectives and balanced retrieval, ensuring fast, accurate responses without lengthy prompts.

Common scenarios include:

 
• Telehealth intake with real-time ambient awareness
 
• Personalized tutoring with memory continuity across sessions
 
• Coaching with structured, goal-driven objectives

For regulated industries, Tavus supports SOC2 and HIPAA compliance, as well as white-labeling and oversight features such as guardrails and conversation transcripts. To understand how these humanlike interfaces are reshaping digital experiences, visit the Tavus homepage for an overview of the platform’s mission and capabilities.

Ship your AI human this week

Take the shortest path to live

Launching a real-time AI video chat bot is no longer a months-long project. With Tavus, you can start free, pick a stock replica, create a persona, and spin up your first conversation using a single API call—POST /v2/conversations. Embedding your AI human is just as simple, whether you use the @tavus/cvi-ui React component library or a standard iframe. This streamlined approach means you can go from idea to live, face-to-face AI interaction in days, not weeks.

Steps to go live include:

 
• Choose a stock or custom replica to represent your AI human.
 
• Create a persona with a system prompt, objectives, and guardrails.
 
• Attach knowledge using document_ids or document_tags for retrieval.
 
• Define objectives and guardrails to guide conversation flow and ensure compliance.
 
• Spin up your first conversation and pass the conversationUrl to your UI component.
 
• Test latency and device setup to ensure a seamless user experience.

For a deeper dive into how Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface (CVI) can be embedded and customized, check out the CVI product documentation.

Design for safety, quality, and outcomes

From day one, Tavus empowers you to set guardrails that keep every conversation safe, compliant, and on-brand. Define clear objectives for your core flows—whether you’re building a health intake assistant, a recruiting screener, or a customer concierge. Decide if persistent Memories are needed for your use case, and fine-tune your retrieval strategy (speed, balanced, or quality) to match the desired response feel. This level of control ensures your AI human delivers not just presence, but precision and trust.

Research shows that emotionally intelligent bots can significantly boost engagement and satisfaction in digital interactions. For example, AI-powered bots have been shown to increase post engagement by fostering more natural, humanlike exchanges.

Build quality into your flows by:

 
• Set guardrails to enforce strict behavioral guidelines and compliance from the start.
 
• Define objectives and measurable outcomes for each conversation flow.
 
• Decide on Memories per use case to enable context continuity when needed.
 
• Use retrieval strategies to balance speed and answer quality.

Measure what matters and iterate

Continuous improvement is built into the Tavus workflow. Track transcripts, emotion and perception signals, and completion rates to understand how users interact with your AI human. Optimize prompts, objectives, and retrieval settings to drive higher engagement, customer satisfaction (CSAT), and conversion. By focusing on the right metrics, you can iterate quickly and deliver an experience that feels both human and effective.

Track these core metrics:

 
• Time-to-first-response (target: under 600 ms)
 
• Conversation length and richness
 
• Objective completion rates
 
• Deflection rate versus human handoff
 
• NPS and CSAT deltas

Ready to see how Tavus can transform your digital experience? Visit the Tavus Homepage for a concise introduction to the platform and its core capabilities. For more on why real-time, emotionally intelligent AI outperforms traditional chatbots, watch The Big AI Visibility Lie No One's Talking About. Get started with Tavus today to build your first AI human—we hope this post was helpful.