Gamescom Dev speaker survey identifies potential impacts of AI on team structure and productivity
Gamescom Dev’s annual speaker survey reveals that the games industry increasingly expects AI to significantly reshape development practices. Among the 100 industry speakers surveyed, 83% anticipate that AI will have a measurable impact on team structure and productivity over the coming years.
The survey identifies AI-assisted development as the industry’s most significant trend for the next three years, with nearly half of respondents selecting this option. This dominates other emerging trends, including hardware and RAM prices (28%), the creator economy (7%), and user-generated content (5%).
Attitudes toward AI involvement in development are shifting positively. Only 30% of respondents prefer minimal AI involvement, marking a decrease from 33% last year—suggesting growing acceptance of AI tools within studios. Meanwhile, 34% of respondents specifically believe that code and production would benefit most from AI assistance, indicating expectations that development workflows and technical productivity stand to gain the most from AI integration.
The findings suggest the industry is moving toward broader adoption of AI development tools, though preferences vary. The trend points toward AI becoming an integral part of how games are made over the next several years.