Google Exec: 90% of Studios Use AI in Games, But Hide It

Google Cloud's global director for games, Jack Buser, asserts that nearly all major game development studios employ artificial intelligence in their workflows, yet many avoid public acknowledgment due to fear of backlash, per a Videogames Chronicle report of his Mobilegamer.biz interview.

Buser cited a Gamescom survey where "roughly nine out of 10 game developers" confirmed AI usage, contrasting with industry surveys showing only 40-50% disclosure. "What's that gap? And that gap is basically the developers' willingness to tell you whether the fact of the matter is it's being used," he explained, noting players remain unaware that "their favorite games right now were already built with AI."

He highlighted Google's tools like Gemini and Nano Banana Pro for automating "the drudgery and repetitive, low value work," with Capcom cited as an example using them for "less important assets" to prioritize creative focus. Buser emphasized AI's role in accelerating development cycles: "Now it's not seven years waiting for one game, but that studio can make five games."

Buser positioned AI as essential to resolving industry instability, stating the business model is "broken" amid declining profits, canceled projects, and layoffs. "AI is rather like Iron Man's suit—'put it on and see what types of superpowers it's able to grant you,'" he said in a PC Gamer interview, arguing it enables "smaller studios to compete with larger budget games by leveraging AI."

He projected AI would foster innovation by allowing studios to "punch way above their weight," reducing development costs and time while enabling "more room to take risks." Buser concluded that as players recognize AI's role in delivering "more innovation in the industry" and "faster" access to diverse titles, industry sentiment toward AI will shift from skepticism to acceptance.

Artūras Malašauskas is an AI Systems Integrator with 20+ years of production-grade web engineering experience. He has designed, shipped, and scaled enterprise Python/PHP systems for logistics, SaaS, and public-sector clients. For the past year, he has focused exclusively on AI integrations: deploying open-source LLMs, building generative media pipelines (image, audio, video), and engineering multi-agent workflows for real production environments. His standard: reproducibility, security, cost-efficient inference—no vaporware. He documents and evaluates emerging AI tooling, separating verified capabilities from marketing noise. Technical editor at: muza-ai.eu, ai-verslas.lt, ai-naujinos.lt Connect on LinkedIn