Vivrato, a games industry consultancy headed by Adam Boyes, released the Vivrato AI Adoption (VAIA) Report 2026, saying AI is being used widely in game production but in a fairly shallow way so far.
Of the 101 studio leaders Vivrato interviewed, 94% use AI in at least one of nine production stages, but 52% rate how deeply it is built into their full production pipeline at three or lower out of 10. This finding is at odds with what many executives say publicly.
In an interview with GamesBeat, Boyes said the report draws on confidential interviews with senior studio leaders and decision makers, conducted from April to September 2026 by VAIA Games AI Research & Advisory, Vivrato’s AI research vertical. The interviewees were primarily in the North America and Europe, with a focus on PC and console development.
AI is already part of the development process for the majority of the studios Vivrato spoke with, but over half have yet to deeply embed it into their production pipelines:
● 101 confidential, one-to-one interviews with senior studio leaders and decision makers, conducted April to September 2026.
● 97% have used AI in some form.
● 94% use AI in at least one of nine production stages.
● Three out of 10 is the median rating for how deeply AI is built into the whole production pipeline. 52% rate it three or lower.
Boyes, founder and CEO of Vivrato, said, “We’ve noticed this year, public discourse and definitions about AI in games usually defaults to generative AI: chatbots, image generation and synthetic voices.
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