Amber CEO Mihai Pohontu talks up the massive opportunities for AI and UGC

Pocket Gamer Connects, the leading international conference series for the global games industry, returns to London on January 19th to 20th, 2026. 

The must-attend conference will bring together 3,000 delegates from 70+ countries, including decision makers from key international games hubs across the globe. Companies set to join the show include Supercell, Epic Games, Duolingo, CD Projekt Red, Tencent, PlayStation, EA, AppLovin, TikTok and many more.

PGC London will host 32 tracks across two days, including at the Apps Business Summit (January 19th) and the Beyond Games: Transmedia Summit (January 20th).

One of the speakers set to join the conference is Mihai Pohontu, the CEO of game development agency Amber, based in Bucharest, Romania.

Previously, Pohontu was the VP of emerging platforms at Samsung, working to build the developer ecosystem around the company’s product line. Prior to joining Samsung, he oversaw product operations at Disney Interactive, a team of 600+ staff distributed across nine locations around the world.

Prior to Disney, Mihai was the VP and General Manager of Central Development Services at Electronic Arts, overseeing operational teams supporting 18 development studios on three continents. He founded and was the general manager of EA Romania, one of the largest game development studios in Eastern Europe. 

Pohontu will be joining the Global Trends panel entitled 'Industry Health Check: Trends, Opportunities & Challenges In 2026'.

We caught up with Pohontu ahead of the show to discuss industry trends and what the next big opportunities in the games market are.

PocketGamer.biz: Please give us a summary of what you’re speaking about and why it’s important.

Mihai Pohontu: I'll be speaking about global trends in the games industry, which is undoubtedly an important topic since it serves to highlight opportunities in a dynamic market, and helps identify the challenges to overcome in the next years.

If you could give other mobile games companies one piece of advice, what would it be?

I believe it's critical to stay agile in the context of rapidly evolving technologies, to continually experiement with new tools and solutions, to engage in "play" as a means to maintain a healthy lead versus less daring competitors. 

Where are the next big opportunities in the mobile games market?

AI is definitely at the peak of the hype cycle and for very good reasons. Beyond leveraging AI tools to optimise and augment production processes (whether we're talking code, art or testing), the biggest opportunity is to leverage LLMs to create new forms of gameplay.

AI is first and foremost an opportunity to create games that could've never existed before, such as building complex, dynamic interactions with an NPC, who feels like a living being both in terms of responses and narrative, but also in terms instant reactions and animations.

I also see a massive oppportunity in engaging audiences via UGC of various types, and I feel modding in mobile games is an unexplored realm.

I also believe there's a massive opportunity in adapting proven gameplay mechanics to higher graphical fidelity and more immersive content, aka upgrading proven A/double-A games to triple-A in the mobile space.

What’s the most important key performance indicator (KPI) for you - and why?

Our most important KPI is NPS (Net Promoter Score), as measured against our partners/clients and our own staff.

I feel that delivering a superior experience to our partners and employees will in turn secure a bright future for our company, which will reflect into economics, innovation, and intrinsic motivation.

What is your biggest aspiration/goal in mobile gaming? 

Our vision is to inhabit every segment of the game development supply chain. We've already demonstrated expertise in co-development and services, as evidenced by the PGC awards we've received over time, and wish to achieve the same success in full game development executed on behalf of partners and for our own IP, publishing, and finally distribution.