Reasons Studios Are Adopting AI Technology

87% of game developers are already using AI. That's not a prediction. That's today's reality. While the industry debates whether AI will "replace creativity," here are the roles where the AI adoption is already happening: 💼 Business / Finance: 50% 🎯 Production / Leadership: 50% 🗣️Marketing: 40% Here's what I'm seeing from studios using AI: ❌ They're not replacing artists. They're using AI for rapid concept iteration. They generate concept variations for a moodboard, then hand the best ones to human artists for refinement. ❌ They're not replacing writers. They're using AI to generate placeholder dialogue during development, then bringing in writers to add personality and depth. ❌ They're not replacing game designers. They're using AI to test balance scenarios and generate level variations, then designers fine-tune the player experience. The pattern is clear: AI handles the grunt work. Humans handle the magic. At Rogues, we've been experimenting with AI in marketing for since the start of 2025: ✅ What used to take months, took a week in January ✅ What took a week in January, took 2 days in June ✅ What took 2 days in June, took a day in November. AI optimises processes. However, the creative vision, the story, the emotional connection - that's still 100% human. The studios thriving aren't the ones avoiding AI. They're the ones figuring out how to use it as a creative amplifier, not a creative replacement. The question isn't whether you should use AI in game development. It's whether you can afford not to while your competition ships faster and iterates quicker. What's your experience with AI in game development? Are you experimenting yet?

The conversation around AI in Hollywood is shifting fast – and how it gets built matters more than ever. I work closely with leaders across studios, streaming platforms and global franchises. Media and entertainment companies need to create more content, faster, while staying true to their brand and IP. And they need partners who honor the craft, nuance and authenticity that define great creative work. The stakes are high. Demand for content is rising while timelines are shrinking. And no studio, streamer or franchise can afford to sacrifice the originality that sets their work apart, whether they’re expanding beloved characters and franchises or creating stories that are entirely new. Studios want to partner with companies that share their commitment to the integrity of their IP – companies that truly understand creativity, how it scales and what it takes to protect it. For decades, Adobe technology has been at the center of how films get made. Our tools have earned multiple Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievement, and filmmakers have relied on them to cut, shape and finish their own award-winning films. We understand firsthand what’s at stake in the day-to-day realities of production. The director who needs a reshoot while lead actors are halfway around the world. The animator who must maintain character consistency across hundreds of shots in a single series. The studio launching a franchise film across dozens of markets and languages, with every asset needing to stay true to their brand. That's exactly why we built Adobe Firefly Foundry. Foundry enables media and entertainment companies to build and train custom AI models on their own IP. Their characters. Their worlds. Their visual language. Teams can maintain character consistency in pre-visualization, generate hundreds of thousands of on-brand assets quickly and compress the timeline from concepting through post-production. Every output across image, video and audio stays aligned to their story's creative identity. It also gives studios something just as important: the ability to collaborate with creators thoughtfully while expanding access to their IP. This means that as they scale, studios still protect their actors, their characters and the integrity of their work. Creativity is too important to be a side bet. At Adobe, we're deepening four decades of partnership with the creative industry and working hand-in-hand with creators, studios and media organizations to shape what comes next. Really excited about what the next forty years of storytelling will bring. https://lnkd.in/gy6cr942

AI isn’t killing creativity — it’s transforming it and opening completely new pathways. In Indonesia, small studios are now using GenAI tools like Sora, Runway, and Midjourney to produce blockbuster-level films on a fraction of Hollywood budgets. The result? The center of creative gravity is shifting — from LA to Jakarta, from capital-rich to idea-rich. When cost no longer defines quality, the entire hierarchy of who gets to create collapses. That’s both liberating — and deeply unsettling. Because as AI lowers barriers for some, it erases professions for others. Voice actors are replaced by synthetic speech. Storyboard artists by text prompts. Editors by automation. A few creators now do what used to take hundreds. But maybe that’s the point. AI isn’t here to preserve old models — it’s here to dissolve them. The real transformation isn’t technical, it’s cultural: 👉 from mastery of tools to mastery of ideas. 👉 from labor as input to creativity as leverage. 👉 from defending craft to redefining what creation even is. The question isn’t whether AI will change creative industries. It’s whether we’ll have the imagination to change with it. https://lnkd.in/ekk-UU8N #AI #Transformation #Business #Creativity

Exciting times ahead in the video gaming world! 🎮 As someone who's spent a significant portion of my career working with gaming studios to promote their incredible games with influencers and media, I’ve always been fascinated by how technology can elevate and innovate the gaming experience. I’m particularly intrigued by how AI is going to shape the future of game development. Microsoft’s recent unveiling of their generative AI model, Muse, is one to watch. This tool, trained on Xbox data, has the potential to drastically reduce development costs for game studios. With the Muse model, AI can now create video game scenes that would traditionally require human programming and animation. This could revolutionize not just how games are developed, but also how they are experienced by players. While some may be concerned that AI could impact game quality or job security for developers, I truly believe that AI can be a tool to enhance creativity, streamline workflows, and push the boundaries of what's possible in gaming. The key is how we use it — as an ally, not a replacement. I’m hopeful that the gaming industry will embrace this shift and see AI as a way to empower developers to craft even more immersive worlds, deeper stories, and dynamic gameplay. Looking forward to seeing how AI continues to evolve in gaming, and how studios will harness this technology to enhance both their efforts and their art.

Every report coming out this summer talks about AI-native operations, but none of them clearly defines what that means. I explore this in the HBR article here: https://lnkd.in/d24XN5QK There are a few key points worth calling out that explain why today's talk about an AI-native model tends to be so vacuous. But before I get to those points, let's set a baseline. --- The baseline most agree on: AI-native orgs do not simply overlay AI on top of legacy systems or use it just to automate individual tasks for incremental efficiency. Instead, they use AI to fundamentally reorganize how work is divided, sequenced, and coordinated across their teams. --- This has several interesting implications: 1. An AI-native operating model starts by redefining the "unit of work" and coordination simultaneously: While incumbent companies usually adopt new tools but keep their traditional workflows intact, AI-native orgs move diagonally across two dimensions by changing both the basic object of production and how it is synchronized. Shein shifted the unit of work in fashion from a long-cycle "season" to an immediate "in-market experiment around a new product concept". At the same time, it replaced slow approval meetings with a continuous loop of sensing, testing, and refining concepts using market data. A reader of the article (https://lnkd.in/dkhZXFMM) applies it to film production, where studios use AI to summarize the Daily Production Report (DPR), but the DPR remains the unit of work. Coordination still revolves around humans reviewing yesterday's docs. An AI-native model unbundles the report into its operational signals - schedule slippage, crew bottlenecks - and coordinates around these signals, moving from periodic document reviews to continuous pattern detection. 2. They transform the nature of knowledge work: In AI-native orgs, knowledge work is no longer owned by a single expert moving through fixed stages. Instead, work becomes a continuous flow of small steps shared dynamically between people and machines. 3. Changing the unit of work helps to uncover new capabilities - and this is eventually what helps create a new competitive edge: AI-native companies lower the cost of coordinating work, allowing tasks to be executed in parallel and recombined frequently. This helps rebuild roles, teams, and decision structures around this new coordination logic, allowing creation of new capabilities that incumbents can't match. 4. Their org structure stops mirroring process architecture and starts mirroring decision architecture: This is the final reveal. When execution was scarce, power was structured around process control and this showed in your org structure. When execution is abundant, that process-shaped org makes no sense. The org has to discover the emerging decision architecture. If your org chart and reporting lines do not shift to mirror this, you're nowhere close to executing AI-native operations.

Over the past three years, my team has been focused on building and deploying professional solutions in entertainment and gaming. What we’re seeing now is a clear shift: top-tier conceptual designers and VFX artists are actively integrating generative tools into production, and not just for novelty, but as part of their core creative process. These are professionals with refined aesthetic judgment, using AI not to replace their instincts, but to extend them. Once they master prompting, their creative output accelerates, resulting in visually sophisticated, emotionally resonant, and production-ready outcomes. That is the real differentiator. Audiences don’t care whether content is AI-generated. They care whether it’s well-crafted, intentional, and creatively strong. Content volume is exploding, but that doesn’t mean quality is rising with it. Instead, audiences are becoming more selective, redistributing their time, attention, and spending towards content that actually resonates. This shift won’t look the same everywhere. Cultural context and regional preferences will shape entirely different content economies, which signals that in the world of AI-powered content, the fight for global attention is only just beginning, and traditional film and studios are beginning to develop their own in-house AI solutions, which could trigger a wave of investment and acquisitions in this space. For companies building in this space, I see several competitive advantages that will separate those who succeed in using AI to elevate creative workflows and those who don’t. 1. Proprietary Data. 2. Pipeline Integration: A good example I often refer to is Frame.io, which is widely used in the entertainment industry. However, it’s not optimized for AI workflows. The opportunity lies in building tools that are. 3. Domain-Specific Models: Fine-tuned, entertainment-optimized models (e.g., video-to-video, animation, etc.) will outperform general-purpose models in speed, control, and quality. 4. Humanities and Science: The strongest companies will blend technical depth with creative intuition. The long-term advantage will be won by teams that understand both the tech stack and good taste. 5. Historical Restoration: One of the more powerful dimensions of AI video generation, especially in film, is how we use technology to restore what’s been buried by time, memory, and bias. When used intentionally, these tools can surface voices that were erased, correct historical omissions, and bring authentic stories back to the audience. We have the power to use AI to change the way stories are told, and I can't wait to see what's next in this landscape.

If you think AI is just a tool, think again. The latest Puma ad was created without humans. No traditional production team, no physical sets, no cameras. Just AI agents working together to ideate, design, produce, and deliver an entire commercial. Media.Monks and NVIDIA built a multi-agent AI system where different AIs handled everything in a connected pipeline. Each agent had a role. One focused on concepting, another on visuals, another on production, and another on formatting the final ad for different platforms. All of them worked together, making decisions in real time and adapting based on input. This was powered by NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform that integrates AI models, 3D design, and simulation, and NVIDIA NIM, which enables these agents to reason and determine the best next step. Why does this matter? 1. Speed and Efficiency. Traditional ad production takes weeks or months. AI can generate high-quality content in a fraction of the time. 2. Endless Iteration. AI can test and refine concepts instantly, adjusting visuals, styles, and messaging based on data. 3. The Future of Creativity. Human oversight remains critical, but AI is reshaping how brands think about content creation, reducing costs and expanding creative possibilities. AI is not replacing creatives. It is redefining what is possible. The brands that adapt first will win.

[New] @a16zgames AI x Game Dev Survey 2024 We surveyed 650+ game devs & the results are fascinating: - 73% of studios are already using AI - 39% of studios see a >20% productivity gain TODAY - 23% of respondents see AI as a threat to their job Here are ALL the big findings: 1/ The vast majority of studios are using AI tools today: - 73% of studios are currently using AI - 88% plan to in the future What's notable (but not surprising) throughout the survey is the disparity between execs/founders views (who are most bullish) of AI vs artists (who are most cautious) in particular: - Execs answered 85% using - Artists answered 58% 2/ Nearly all studios using AI tools are seeing meaningful productivity gains w/ cost savings trailing behind - 39% of studios are seeing > 20% productivity gains - 25% are seeing >20% cost savings AI tools today are mostly co-pilots which supercharge creators vs replacing. They will allow studios to ship better games, faster. Not necessarily with a smaller team but likely with less outsourcing of art, QA, localization, etc. 3/ 67% of respondents are either extremely excited or excited about AI Most excited: - Execs - 76% - Programmers & Designers (both) - 65% - Artists - 56% Artists are the most negative w/ 27% concerned about AI born out of fear (see below) 4/ Many fear that AI will eliminate their jobs over time - Artists answered highest at 36% - Founders & executives answered lowest at 15% - Game designers and programmers were in the middle at 24% 5/ By FAR the largest reason why studios are not expanding their usage of AI is because of model quality - 53% say that model quality & accuracy was the main impediment The models will only get better from here. 2025 in particularly will be a big year for 3D & agents 6/ Studios are thinking about how they can use AI for new game designs and emergent gameplay 53% of respondents are exploring the use of AI as content ‘in’ the game (at runtime). This could be AI NPCs or real-time content generation. AI will unlock many new genres of games, and we'll see some of the first breakout "AI-native games" next year 7/ Most studios (54%) will want to train or fine-tune their own models This helps on several fronts: - Consistency on art style and characters - Privacy/security concerns - In the case of AI at runtime, constraining the models to keep them narratively in sync 8/ Similar to last year's response, AI today is mainly being used at the pre-production/prototyping stage This is likely due to the model quality and copyright concerns 9/ The 3D asset generation models got dramatically better in 2024. That's led to an increase in usage and interest (70% this year vs 48% last year) 10/ These are the 10 most popular AI tools used by game devs today: Anthropic (Claude) Black Forest Labs (Flux) ** ChatGPT Cursor ** ElevenLabs ** GitHub Copilot Meshy ** Midjourney Stability AI (Stable Diffusion) Suno ^ **New entrants this year Let's see what's in store for 2025...

I think this is an enormous moment for Hollywood and for AI. In July The Walt Disney Company sued Midjourney - now it's investing in OpenAI. What changed? Disney realized something crucial: if you can't beat them, monetize them. Here's what's happening: Starting early 2026, users of OpenAI's Sora will be able to create short-form videos featuring 200+ Disney characters - from Marvel heroes to Star Wars icons to Pixar favorites. Disney+ will host "fan-inspired Sora short form videos." This is Disney doing what Disney does best: protecting and monetizing their IP strategically. Just months ago, the industry was furious with Sora. WME opted out all clients. CAA called it "misuse of emerging technology." UTA said "exploitation, not innovation." Now? Disney just legitimized the entire platform overnight. For licensing professionals, this matters because: → It's a blueprint for IP holders navigating AI partnerships → It creates a precedent for "interactive fan fiction" licensing deals → It signals studios will embrace AI firms rather than fight them → It opens new revenue streams from existing IP catalogs Iger's philosophy: meet audiences where they are. The contrast is stark: Disney sued Midjourney for being a "bottomless pit of plagiarism" because users could create Darth Vader images without compensating Disney. Now with OpenAI, there's a deal. There's money flowing. There's a level of control control. Sam Altman himself wrote in October that he's hearing from "a lot of rightsholders who are very excited for this new kind of 'interactive fan fiction.'" Turns out he was right. And landing Disney just opened the floodgates - when the industry's most protective IP holder says yes, everyone else will follow.

Hollywood didn't pivot to AI. It absorbed it. LA spent decades mastering production. Now it is building the AI layer behind it, right next to the soundstages. Studios, avatar platforms, visual dubbing, conversational characters, AI film tools. All shipping side by side, because Hollywood is right there. LA is not adopting generative AI. It is turning it into production infrastructure. 👇 14 companies building the generative visual layer from Los Angeles Promise: Dave Clark Entertainment studio built for the GenAI era. HeyGen : AI avatars making visual storytelling accessible to all. Genies : Akash Nigam AI avatar technology powering the next generation of digital experiences. Pinscreen : Hao Li Generative AI for VFX and interactive experiences. Wonder Studios : Xavier Collins, Justin Hackney Shaping the next era of AI storytelling. Flawless AI : Scott Mann, Nick Lynes Arcana : Jonathan Yunger Where tech meets Hollywood, building artist-first AI tools. Secret Level : Jason Zada AI-native entertainment studio creating films, series, and brand worlds. GRAiL : Davide Bianca, Jeff Krelitz Next-gen entertainment studio powered by AI. Phantom X : Kavan Cardoza, Michael Mitchell, Steffan Busser Merging cutting-edge AI with human creativity to push visual storytelling. Asteria : Bryn Mooser, Natasha Lyonne AI ethical film studio. Billy Boman AI Productions : Billy Boman Art-directed realism, powered by AI. Helping brands move at the speed of culture. StoryFile Conversational AI video avatars. Studio Jadu : Asad J. Malik AR and AI avatars for mobile. 💬 The headline is not "AI is coming to Hollywood." The real story is Hollywood turning AI into a repeatable, shippable workflow. Infrastructure that removes mechanical friction without replacing the human fingerprint. That is what is being built here. 1️⃣ Who did we miss? Tag LA-based generative image or video companies and AI-first studios that belong on this map. 2️⃣ Tag a founder, creative, or operator who should be paying attention to what is being built in LA right now. 📍Some of these are only reported as "LA based," so exact office locations may vary.