A VC’s perspective on AI in games: "AI is going to change and replace lower development-effort work"

PGC London 2025 is now in progress, and already many insightful talks are getting underway. To begin, AI.Fund principle and former 1-Up Capital co-founder Maximilian Seeburg took to the stage to discuss a VC’s view on using AI in games.

"AI is going to change and replace lower development-effort work, but creative capacity is going to continue to be something extremely difficult to replace," he said.

"AI-generated content, I think, is going to be quite massive. Bizarre is an interesting way to describe it, in the sense that you can do all sorts of things with it. It becomes easier and easier as long as it’s adaptive for the mass market."

Smarter, not lazier

AI has been a hot topic of the games industry for a number of years now, from the coding side to level design, to conversations around replacing jobs or maximising them.

As far as Seeburg is concerned, the technology is at its most appealing when used to "hyperpersonalise" games, enhancing the user experience, enabling adaptive difficulty and unlocking smarter NPCs.

"Hyperpersonalisation is definitely an area we’re thinking about."

Seeburg also highlighted that in Q3 2024, 22% of VC funding in games went to companies relating to or referencing AI. He noted the potential of games developers broadening scope to other industries in the future.

"We are starting to think a little bit outside of the box. Gaming isn’t this closed environment. I think it’s going to impact all sorts of industries, so I’m interested in the paradigm shift coming. Game tech will impact every sector."

Of course, this potential also makes a company more appealing for investment.

On the other hand, Seeburg stated that a company calling itself "AI-first", just because ChatGPT is running on its website, doesn’t count. VCs want to see how people are using AI in coding, content generation, optimising user acquisition and more.

"One thing we see often is when AI is starting to take over the whole creative process. Use it to be smarter about the way you work, don’t use it to be lazier," said Seeburg.

"It’s time to make games smarter."

There’s still a lot more to discover from PGC London 2025, with talks and conversations ongoing throughout January 20 and 21. Check out the full schedule here.