Nvidia brings AI Advisor to Total War: Pharaoh using ACE technology for real-time help

Popular Strategy Game Adds Nvidia 'AI Advisor' to Help With In-Game Questions

Strategy games can be hard for newbies to grasp, so Nvidia and Creative Assembly have teamed up to add an "AI Advisor" to Total War: Pharaoh using Nvidia ACE technology. The advisor was already part of Pharaoh, and a fairly standard inclusion in these sorts of games, offering players tips and pointers, as well as general advice on how to manage their kingdom. Nvidia ACE is intended to provide more in-depth and more readily understandable instructions for players, especially those just starting out with this iconic series. Nvidia ACE combines live game state data with a large database of game data to draw conclusions about player state, intentions, and potential pitfalls, enabling the Advisor to do more than a standard in-game helper. As a large language model, it can adapt its language to be more helpful, instructive, or generalized as needed by the player. Crucially, it can answer questions, too. While traditional advisors might pop up uninvited, Nvidia ACE allows two-way communication between the player and advisor, letting them ask about game features, mechanics, or states. In one cited example in the above video, the player has won a battle in one region of their kingdom, but a rebellion elsewhere is causing problems. It's not immediately clear why, so the player asks the advisor in a chatbox, "Why has a rebellion broken out?" They don't specify where or need to click on anything in particular. The generalized question is enough for the advisor to figure out what kind of response they were looking for. In this case, the advisor could quickly tell the player that it broke out because the happiness fell to -100 in that city. It's fast and responsive thanks to Nvidia AI acceleration and the ACE engine's design. It also suggests solutions to the problem and how it might be avoided in the future. The player also asks the advisor about their response. Once they have prepared an army to put down the rebellion, they ask the advisor, "How would my army fare against the rebels?" The AI is only working with the same information the player themselves has access to, so it's not a spoiler or game-breaking design choice to allow it, but for those who can't easily parse the iconography of the game, or again, are just starting out and learning, this could be invaluable. Although experienced gamers might scoff at this AI invasion of their favorite titles, I know plenty of casual gamers who might be more interested in trying more complex games like Total War if they weren't so opaque and offered more nuanced tutorial systems.

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

TL;DR: NVIDIA ACE integrates AI-powered digital humans into Total War: Pharaoh, offering players a real-time, natural language AI advisor that provides strategic guidance and game insights. Running locally on GeForce RTX GPUs, this innovative tool enhances gameplay with animated, voiced characters, marking a practical advancement in AI-driven strategy gaming. 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. 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. 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.

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

TL;DR: NVIDIA showcased on-device AI advancements at CES 2026, enhancing gameplay with AI teammates in PUBG and AI citizens in Inzoi. Collaborating with Creative Assembly, NVIDIA ACE technology powers a context-aware Total War: PHARAOH Advisor to improve player onboarding and real-time in-game assistance, launching soon in a playtest. NVIDIA talked about something really cool during CES 2026, with new gameplay being unlocked thanks to on-device AI. The company talked about how on-device AI is helping unlock totally new gameplay, using Inzoi and PUBG as recent examples of using it for AI citizens in Inzoi, and AI teammates in PUBG. NVIDIA said it has worked with Total War developer Creative Assembly on reimagining Total War: PHARAOH Advisor with its NVIDIA ACE technology. The Total War Advisor can help you get used to the gameplay mechanics, asking it questions along the way with a prompt, and the advisor will help you. NVIDIA explained: "So this is AI models running on device that make an AI team possible. You can command the Ally with in-game talk issue commands, plan attacks, or simply chat, just like another member of your squad". NVIDIA continued: "So this is sort of, uh, an experiment. From Crofton. But this next one is a different kind of experiment. So you know, as you know, games are getting more and more complex, they're becoming more and more intricate. Um, skill trades, crafting mechanics, all this sort of stuff". "It's one of the great things, especially about PC gaming, but sometimes it actually sort of provides a barrier to entry and sort of stops people from really getting into the game. So, this is a big challenge for many game developers. In this case, we're working with Creative Assembly. The company that makes the Total War games". The company continued: "they know all too well about this double-edged sword effect onboarding new players. So, this is an area where they're finding AI can help. So they've always had an advisor in the game and the advisor has sort of provided tutorials, uh, introduction to game mechanics". "They're now going through an overhauling the NPCs to be more helpful, more fun. This is an AI advisor built using NVIDIA ACE, connecting on-device models to the game database and giving me a real-time understanding of what's happening in your specific game session".

Nvidia demonstrates actual useful AI advisor

Nvidias ACE system was demonstrated helping players with the complex world of Total War: Pharaoh CES 2026 was also a place to demonstrate that generative AI, if used correctly, can actually be beneficial to both players and developers. This was done by revealing that Creative Assembly, perhaps in recognition that their games can be slightly overwhelming for new players, are experimenting with an "dynamic AI Advisor" - which is tech speak for a generative AI that is trained using only a very select internal dataset, and running directly on the GPU. In this way the AI has full access to the entire system, and is able to give the player actual useful advice that is current, and based on the database being used for the game, with the context being clear and customizable to match the player. Creative Assembly intends to do more research on such systems, testing and getting player feedback, with an eye open to evolving in to characters which can react and act according to your actual gameplay in a much deeper level. This could also indicate that Total War: Warhammer 40K may get rid of the usual standard adviser in the game, and have a new AI powered one that can actual monitor and advise on your actual gameplay, instead of just giving pre-determined advice, whether its relevant or not. This could also pave the way for a more clever use of AI to improve player experience while avoiding thousands of programming hours.

Total War: PHARAOH Is Getting an In-Game AI Advisor Powered by NVIDIA ACE

The news was unveiled by NVIDIA at CES 2026 today. This updated version of the in-game advisor reimagines the traditional strategy game guide by using on-device AI to provide real-time, context-aware assistance. Total War: PHARAOH players can engage with the advisor via natural language prompts (voice or text), rather than searching through menus or FAQs. The advisor has been trained on the specific mechanics of Total War: PHARAOH and has game-state awareness (as well as using a historically appropriate tone and lore-driven mindset). For example, it can analyze why a settlement revolted or offer strategic advice based on the player's current campaign situation. The AI processes player prompts, the current game state, and data retrieved from the game's complex database, which contains up-to-date information on units, the economy, resource management, faction traits, buildings, and status effects. Behind the scenes, the Total War: PHARAOH AI advisor is powered by a small language model that runs locally on the user's GPU. The studio used NVIDIA ACE developer tools to build the pipeline connecting Total War's extensive game data to the model. This new feature is part of a program to investigate how Creative Assembly can make Total War more approachable, dynamic, and ultimately more accessible to players of all skill levels, without compromising any of the depth that has defined the franchise over the past 25 years. The CES 2026 announcement also included confirmation that an upcoming playtest program for this AI advisor is scheduled to launch for select community members in 2026. During the CES 2026 NVIDIA ACE update, we also received an update on the PUBG Ally in-game companion that was originally announced at last year's Consumer Electronics Show. PUBG Ally will initially be tested in the first half of 2026 via a limited-time event in PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Arcade, and will be available for players using English, Chinese, and Korean. These CPC (Co-Playable Characters) are powered by small language and speech models via efficient on-device inference. An automatic speech recognition model understands the player's voice, while a small language model (SLM) combines these instructions with PUBG Ally's perception of the game state for strategic planning and real-time reactions. A text-to-speech model then generates dynamic voice lines to communicate with the player. At CES 2026, it was also confirmed that PUBG Ally will include a long-term memory system that lets Co-Playable Characters recall previous performances and gameplay interactions, allowing the AI to draw on these memories while interacting with the player. This definitely opens up to more immersive interactions, although it will be interesting to see how the gaming community reacts to it, given the growing anti-AI sentiment.