AI in Video Games: Is It Really a Big Deal?

AI is the buzzword of the day. It seems almost weekly that a new company demonstrates how AI improves its service, a friend celebrates a tool that takes care of busywork or a household product integrates it into its systems. But as exciting as new technology can be, it’s interesting to note how each step forwards reshapes our thinking.

Humour me for just a moment – then we can talk about games. Could you argue that writing down something changes its delivery? Greek philosopher Plato certainly thought so. We’ve all heard that body language is more important than what you say and Plato believed that the delivery itself from a great speaker was most of the message. But where would we be without writing today? Surely, we’d have little knowledge of Plato. Let’s look at more modern technologies like the clock, a wonderful invention that allows us to accurately measure the time available in a day. By quantifying time, we’ve begun to ignore natural rhythms, the sun and the seasons. Coupled with the electric lightbulb in the 19th Century we’ve moved from time-keepers, to time-savers, and now time-servers. This pattern has repeated itself throughout human history; from language, to the internet and even the smartphone.

OK, to games. If AI is a brand new technology that will inevitably change the way we think, so what? In wider circles, AI is already coming under criticism from certain corners, with accusations of generating misinformation or nefarious, even illegal, uses. Video games as a medium exist right on the intersection between technology and creativity. Understandably our industry is fundamentally split on it as we anticipate the possible benefits to systems, prototyping and asset generation; while wrestling with the lack of source transparency, the job roles AI erases and the fundamental ‘human’ creativity it replaces.

2020 saw a gigantic boom for video games, as many of us stayed home and picked up the controller. What followed however was the inevitable bust, as investments started to fall flat on account of players heading back to work, coupled with further threats like increased costs, a shrinking core market and lower share of attention against other activities such as social media or streaming television.

Are jobs in gaming no longer secure? Despite the woes, companies are still making sales and the industry is growing (slowly), but with high costs, opportunities to use technologies like AI to save money while speeding up workflow certainly seem attractive.

So what does this mean for me and you? It’s certainly true to say that there are significant benefits to what AI can offer for games, other than just cost-saving measures for executives. The potential for reactive dialogue in video games is hugely exciting to players, with games like Meaning Machine’s Dead Meat using AI to play the role of a slippery suspect in a murder investigation, intent on doing everything in its power to get away. Without the use of AI, this would be a task demanding finite pathways in a scripting tool such as INK. Using AI however, the character can react directly to your prompts as the player, creating an essentially infinite playspace. Her Story for the AI age.

Further advantages are offered on the visual side; brainstorming ideas, increasing textures and even optimising unnecessary polygons; all immediately practical applications, assumedly attractive to the majority of game developers. Perhaps the most immediately relevant use case in the short term is in the use of QA. With AAA studios shedding staff and grassroots indie studios popping up all over the place, developers are forced to wear multiple hats as they attempt to cater to multiple roles and learn new skills to bring their projects to life. Reliable quality assurance throughout every step of that process is a hugely reassuring comfort for the first-time game maker.

Indeed “everyone's doing it”, according to Insider Gaming owner Tom Henderson. Tracey McGarrigan, CEO and Founder of Ansible Comms elaborates, “if you are only using AI to shave your budgets or eliminate the need for people on your team, that is a race to the bottom. AI should be seen as a tool to augment talent, not replace it”. So where do we draw the line? It could be argued that some companies are out of touch with their consumers - most recently demonstrated by NVIDIA’s announcement of DLSS5, a technology to allow developers to augment their character models and textures through the use of AI. An incredible idea in principle, however the end result felt flat, insipid and distinctly artificial to most, drawing the ire of many gamers on social media. NVIDIA’s actions carry significant weight as an organisation with an established name in AI and a firm background in gaming. Although the updated textures were largely impressive, the juxtaposition with their original versions exposed AI’s achilles heel for all to see: a lack of personality.

If every game begins to look the same, we trend towards a true lose-lose scenario for companies and gamers alike, a ‘flattened culture’ where originality becomes rare. Already this is a concern in other areas of artificial intelligence, where even academic papers produced through the use of AI, begin to reference previous works - again created through AI. As more and more works reference and draw from one another, at best - the edges of original thought are smoothed away, at worst - we begin to obfuscate knowledge, even truth. This was demonstrated in a study by James Evans at the University of Chicago who analysed the patterns in references found across students’ work from 1945 to 2005. His assumption was that with the advent of the internet and the wider access to information, the more diverse citations he would see. In fact, the opposite was true. With priority given to more recent resources, the breadth of citations shrank.

Avoiding AI entirely has its risks though - by ignoring the huge dataset on which AI is built upon, the risk of commercial failure is increased. But just because an idea is original, doesn’t mean it’s successful. Some developers will lean into the turn and use the technology for genuinely new and innovative applications. Others will avoid it entirely, perhaps out of principle, trying multiple ideas until one finds its footing. Only time will tell which group produces the next truly culture-changing trend.

Fundamentally, as with most things in life, a middle ground is likely the best course of action. As policy makers race to catch up to the technology, platform holders are left making judgement calls on the frontline. According to GamesIndustry.biz, nine out of ten developers believe that games should disclose the use of AI on their store pages. The next question is to what extent? Is using AI to translate my game’s description into French less egregious than generating the entirety of my art through Gen-AI? Fundamentally, that is a choice that rests with only one person – you, the player.

Author: George Eastmead

References: 
Neil Postman, 1985 Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Viking Penguin. Pp. 9-11

Meaning Machine – AI Characters & Quests for Games & Immersive, Meaning Machine.
https://www.meaningmachine.games

Newsweek.com, 2026 Experts say “everyone’s doing it” when it comes to generative AI in games, Newsweek.
https://www.newsweek.com/entertainment/video-games/experts-say-everyones-doing-it-when-it-comes-to-generative-ai-in-games-11878394

Dring, C., 2025 What place will AI have in game development?, GamesIndustry.biz.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/what-place-will-ai-have-in-game-development

Lin, H., 2026 NVIDIA DLSS 5 Delivers AI-Powered Breakthrough in Visual Fidelity for Games, NVIDIA.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/dlss5-breakthrough-in-visual-fidelity-for-games/

Nicholas Carr, 2010 The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.  Penguin Books, p.121.

Sutcliffe, C., 2026 Nearly nine in ten games industry workers believe GenAI use should be disclosed on storefronts, GamesIndustry.biz.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/nearly-nine-in-ten-games-industry-workers-believe-genai-use-should-be-disclosed-on-storefronts