Report finds that 94% of studios use AI, but more than half say it isn’t deeply embedded into production
A research firm held 101 confidential interviews with senior studio leaders
A newly published report reveals that almost all of the game studios questioned said they used AI in development, but around half said its use wasn’t particularly deeply embedded in their production pipelines.
The VAIA Report, carried out by games industry consultancy Vivrato (founded by former PlayStation exec Adam Boyes), consisted of 101 confidential, one-on-one interviews carried out between April and September with senior studio leaders and decision makers, primarily at studios headquartered in North America and Europe.
Each interview followed the same 44-question guide and covered the same nine stage of game production – from concept and pre-production to live ops and monetization – to ensure consistent results.
Of the studio representatives interviewed, 97% said they have used AI in some form, and 94% said AI is used in at least one of the nine production stages.
When asked to rate out of 10 how deeply AI was built into their production pipeline, however, 52% of those interviewed rated it at 3 or lower.
The study also found disparities between North America and Europe, with the latter reporting deeper adoption. 70% of those from European studios said AI was used in art, assets and animation, compared to 53 in North America, for example.
“We’ve noticed this year, public discourse and definitions about AI in games usually defaults to generative AI – chatbots, image generation and synthetic voices,” Vivrato founder and CEO Adam Boyes said.
“However, we know that studios use AI in a variety of ways, from machine learning that predicts player churn to rules-based automation in testing, with very different results. That makes now the right moment to set a clear baseline, so we created VAIA, a dedicated research vertical within Vivrato to track and measure what is actually happening behind closed doors.”
He added: “The interesting question isn’t around which game studios are using AI anymore. Most of the 101 leaders we spoke with declared that they have adopted some form of AI within their development pipelines. The focus is now where they’re using it, what is changing, what’s actually helping, and where teams are still running into challenges.”
