EA laid off developers across its many studios last week, and while the company did not specify the exact number of people affected, reports suggest "between 300 and 400" jobs were cut. Now, EA CEO Andrew Wilson says he's optimistic about the future in part because of how heavily the company has invested in AI.
At the end of his prepared remarks during EA's Q4 2025 financial earnings call, Wilson said "I also want to take a moment to talk about how AI is powering our future. We view AI as a powerful accelerator of creativity, innovation, and player connection."
EA has been banging the drum about AI since 2023, going from acknowledging the "fears" around the tech to praising it as "the very core of our business." We know EA used "the power of AI" to help generate the thousands of player faces in the wildly popular College Football 25, and the tech's use is now apparently going much further.
"Across our teams," Wilson continued in the financial call, "we're investing in new workflows and capabilities to integrate AI to enhance how we build, scale, and personalize experiences, from dynamic in-game worlds to delivering authentic athlete and team likenesses at incredible scale."
The idea that AI will eventually help to automate the more tedious parts of game development – like creating thousands of faces for a college sports game – isn't really a controversial one at this point. Even Baldur's Gate 3 boss Swen Vincke, who has been outspoken about other industry issues, admits that AI could be "a tool that we use to help us do things faster." But Vincke doesn't believe "it'll ever replace a creative side" of development."
I'm not sure EA is making the same distinction. "Our developers are using AI to push the boundaries of what's possible in design, animation, and storytelling," Wilson said, "helping us deliver deeper, more immersive gameplay. This is about amplifying the power of this technology to unlock new possibilities for the future of interactive entertainment."
Wilson concluded his remarks by acknowledging "near-term economic uncertainty," but cited such things as "leading IP, transformative technology, a global network of passionate players, and the best creative talent in the industry" as reasons that the company has "never been more optimistic about what comes next." Somehow, I doubt the developers laid off across the company share that optimism.
Helldivers 2 CEO says industry layoffs have seen "very little accountability" from executives who "let go of one third of the company because you made stupid decisions."
