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GDC Survey Finds 52% Of Developers Work At Companies That Are Using Generative AI Tools

GDC’s annual State of the Game Industry survey report is a small window into the games industry each year, as GDC surveys more than 3,000 developers on a range of topics.

For the last few years, one of those major topics has been Generative AI tools in the games industry, and this year’s report shows that among those surveyed, more studios are using these tools in their day-to-day processes.

52% of developers “work at companies where Generative AI tools are being used,” the report states, while 36% of developers surveyed say they are personally using them, which is an increase from last year’s 31% number.

While more companies are using Generative AI tools, they’re also creating new policies around them. The report says that 64% of developers said that their companies have “some form of internal policy for Generative AI use,” which is an increase from 51% in last year’s report.

Of those policies, only 16% of respondents said their company’s policy is that they can’t use Generative AI tools at all, and 35% said Generative AI tools are optional, while only 9% of respondents said the use of Generative AI tools are mandated at their workplace. 24% of respondents said their companies don’t yet have a policy around Generative AI tools.

Generative AI tools are a controversial topic, and developers publicly calling out that they were used in the game-making process often face community backlash. But according to GDC’s report, the branches of the industry who are using these tools the most also don’t seem to be the ones directly involved with the creative process of game making.

51% of those surveyed who use Generative AI tools were business and finance developers, 41% of those surveyed who use Generative AI tools were production and team leadership developers, and 39% of developers surveyed who use Generative AI tools were community, marketing and PR developers.

Another interesting point from the report on Generative AI tools, is that while they are being used more in the games industry, the interest in using these tools is going down.

“It appears that as usage has gone up, curiosity has gone down,” the report reads. “Less than one-tenth (9%) of developers say their companies are interested in Generative AI tools, down from 15% last year. In comparison, 27% say their companies have no interest in using them, a 9-point increase from 2024.”

“When asked what applications they saw for the use of Generative AI in the game industry, developers pointed to tasks like coding assistance, concept art and 3D model generation, and automation of repetitive tasks (developers made similar suggestions in our 2024 survey).

But the word used most frequently in their responses was ‘none.'”

It’s clear that there is still a faction of developers who see Generative AI tools as new technology that can be additive to the game making process, though there’s also still plenty of developers who don’t see its uses, and think the use of these tools is negatively impacting the video game industry.

Of GDC’s respondents, only 13% said they think Generative AI “is having a positive impact on the game industry,” which is a decrease from last year’s 21% stat. On the other side, 30% said it has had a negative impact, and a growing number of developers classified themselves as “very concerned” regarding the ethics of using Generative AI tools.

Source – [GDC]