Image Credit: Ubisoft.
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Ubisoft has unveiled a playable generative AI research project called Teammates, following its declaration of an “AI revolution” during the company’s fiscal 2026 earnings call.
Okay, so let’s back up to earlier today. Ubisoft is rolling out a massive wave of generative AI for programming, art, and NPCs. To nobody’s surprise, gamers expressed anger on X as the gaming industry continues to be taken over by AI, leading to layoffs of human employees. Some publishers are even begging and paying employees to leave to make room for AI.
One of these AI initiatives? Teammates, a project that will showcase the capabilities of in-game AI. Jaspar, an AI-powered NPC, will support players, interacting in real-time. This includes responding to commands and gameplay, as well as communicating with players.
Who the hell is Jaspar?
According to Director of Gameplay Gen AI Xavier Manzanares, Narrative Director Virginie Mosser, and Dat & AI Director Remi Labory, Jaspar is the AI voice assistant that’s basically glorified in-game Siri. Teammates will also have two NPC squad members, Pablo and Sofia.
As you traverse a dystopian future (wow, the irony), players must locate five missing team members, fight off enemies, and follow a short storyline full of memories. Jaspar will highlight enemies and objects, provide more story context, pause the game, and respond to your voice commands and actions. Using contextual clues, Jaspar can adapt to your vocal inputs and actions.
Honestly, it just sounds like the excruciating sidekick in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but with extra steps.
Don’t expect to just enjoy the game how you want. There are things you’ll be forced to do in order to put your AI NPC freaks to the test. This includes an early challenge where you have to command Sofia and Pablo with voice commands alone. What you tell them to do will shape the outcome of the battle. And probably drive you insane.
While Manzanares told Ubisoft that Jaspar “helped players when they got lost” and “tell players more about the world and story,” this doesn’t really answer a more important question: WHY are we interacting with Jaspar? Why is this even being explored?
Mosser added that players will hopefully feel they are “shaping the story themselves” rather than following it. But I am playing The Outer Worlds 2 and I can definitely tell my teammates what to do and instruct them to use special abilities. They also clearly react to how I’m playing in some fashion.
So why do we need AI? Many gamers sure don’t want it.
Ubisoft reacts to backlash against AI
The developers behind Teammates are well aware that the gaming community is wary of AI. While some gamers have expressed interest in having AI teammates instead of real people and are intrigued to see more dynamic gameplay, the concern is moreso about the replacement of real employees with quick AI solutions.
“At first, I had the same concerns as many others,” said Mosser. “But I discovered that it’s the exact opposite of removing the human from the process. I still write the story and character personalities, but instead of fixed lines, we create these kinds of fences that let NPCs improvise within the world but stay within the boundaries of the lore and motivations we have given them.
“They can improvise, but we still set the rules and direct the story and characters.”
This sounds well and good, but Ubisoft is already guilty of begging real humans to leave the company to make room for its new direction — revealed to be AI.
“As part of our ongoing evolution and long-term planning, we have recently realigned our teams and resources to strengthen our roadmap, ensuring our continued focus on The Division franchise and the technologies, including Snowdrop and Ubisoft Connect, that power our games,” the studio announced in a statement.
“To support this transition responsibly, we introduced a voluntary career transition program, giving eligible team members the opportunity to take their next career step on their own terms, supported by a comprehensive package that includes financial and career assistance.”
So it’s a bit hard to believe that employees won’t be impacted by the results of Teammates. If AI proves to be a fun, dynamic, and capable teammate that can react to real-time commands with less and less supervision, that would make a lot of positions on development teams sorta “useless.” It’s not like we’d need as many dialogue writers, game designers, or game developers.
More about Teammates will come out soon. Against my will.
Last Updated On: Nov 22, 2025 5:47 am CET