On the Front Lines of AI Game Dev

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Aug 29, 2025

Francois Courset, a Senior Consultant at Naavik, dives into the transformative role of AI in game development. He discusses how AI has evolved from a novelty to a necessity, particularly in content generation and workflow automation. Francois highlights the importance of balancing human oversight with AI tools and explores whether studios should develop in-house expertise or seek external support. He also addresses creative uses of AI in gaming and the challenges that arise, offering listeners a comprehensive view of AI's growing influence in the industry.

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ANECDOTE

Hands-On With Early In-World AI

Francois supported Team Meowzy in shipping one of the first consumer-facing in-world AI projects.
He used those learnings to help shape Novik's AI consulting offerings.

INSIGHT

Reality Check: AI Is Big But Not Magical

AI's potential is transformative but current capabilities are often overhyped and misapplied.
Game teams face unique adoption barriers like fragmentation, long projects, and brand risk.

ADVICE

Target High-Output, Narrow Use Cases

Use AI to massively scale repeatable tasks like ad creative iteration and automated QA.
Focus AI on narrow, high-output pockets rather than trying to change entire pipelines at once.

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With AI taking over the tech industry, its role in game development is slowly shifting from novelty to potential necessity. Host Devin Becker sits down with Francois Courset, Senior Consultant at Naavik with experience around using AI in game development, to explore the current and near-future landscape of AI in game creation. The conversation covers everything from Francois’ high-level perspective on AI's role in the industry to specific tools that are already proving useful, alongside those that show promise but still need refinement.

The episode dives into where AI is making the biggest impact today, such as content generation and workflow automation, as well as less obvious areas that might benefit from AI with more maturity or experimentation. Francois also weighs in on whether studios should build internal AI expertise or lean on external support, and what developers should be doing now to prepare for what’s coming. The episode wraps with a rapid-fire round on the worst, best, and most exciting AI use cases in games.

Whether you’re hands-on in production or thinking strategically about the future, this episode provides a grounded look at AI’s growing role in game development.

We’d like to thank Levellr — the Discord community intelligence platform — for making this episode possible. Learn more about unlocking real-time community insights at levellr.com.

We’d also like to thank Neon – a merchant of record with customizable webshops optimized for conversion – for making this episode possible! Neon is trusted by some of the biggest names in gaming and can help you sell direct without the typical overhead. To learn more, visit https://www.neonpay.com/?utm_source=naavik

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