AI is 2024's big tech industry buzzword, everyone's talking about it. The games sector isn't exactly new to the tech, but just how advanced is the new wave of emerging tools and how might generative AI be used in production right now?

To help answer that question, we've got Ludo.ai CEO and founder Tom Pigott as one of our 90+ speakers for Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco next week, where he'll share his keen insights into the emergent technology and its practical uses.

The event takes place on March 18th to 19th and features all the usual PGC goodness: a track full of insightful sessions, roundtables where industry professionals can air their views on hot topics, networking opportunities (like Publisher SpeedMatch, Investor Connector and more), the Journalist Bar, the Very Big Indie Pitch and much more.

Pigott will discuss AI and development insights in a fireside chat with PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple entitled 'How AI is Shaking up Game Development in 2024'. He'll also be part of the 'AI Advances: Best Practices for the use of AI in Your Game Development Process' panel.

PocketGamer.biz: Could you tell us a bit about yourself and Ludo.ai?

Tom Pigott: I founded Ludo.ai in 2021 to streamline the ideation and pre-production process for mobile game developers with a suite of AI-powered tools in an all-in-one platform.

The Ludo.ai platform has developed and grown with demand and now provides game developers with a plethora of tools ranging from research tools that identify winning games formats through to image and video generation unique to the games industry.

Ludo is here to offer a helping hand in the ever more important field of pre-production and is seen by many as the Adobe of game development.

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

Firstly, I’ll be sitting down with Steel Media’s Craig Chapple for a fireside chat, where we’ll discuss the evolution of generative AI in the games industry. This one-on-one will go in depth on how generative AI has become the most important disruptive technology in our industry, with each feature and iteration seeming to have more of an impact than the last.

I will also be taking part in the “AI Advances: Best Practices for the use of AI in Your Game Development Process” panel. It’s amazing to see how quickly AI has come to the fore, when we at Ludo have been talking about AI in games since pre-pandemic times.

Now that AI technology is becoming more commonplace we will be discussing how developers can leverage AI and its critical implications for the games industry.

With the rapid development of technologies and tools we’re seeing, AI will change the way we create games - and having a discussion on this topic with a great group of industry experts is going to prove incredibly valuable to attendees.

What is the single biggest challenge facing the mobile games industry today?

With so many changes impacting the industry, from privacy through to world economics, games are becoming increasingly expensive to bring to an increasingly competitive market.

This is presenting a new challenge for mobile developers, particularly indies who are becoming ever more conscious of resource allocation as costs increase.

We have created Ludo to level the playing field for all developers, speeding up and providing inspiration through the whole ideation and pre-production process ultimately reducing cost and risk.

What key trend should we be paying attention to in the next 12 months?

AI truly cut through to the mainstream in 2023, and has been a topic of many discussions throughout the games industry.

I expect this trend to carry on throughout 2024 and beyond. I also predict we will see some rockstar indie studios emerge from the swathe of industry layoffs.

These studios will ditch expensive legacy processes and supercharge their games development with tools like Ludo.ai.

What was the fundamental appeal of the mobile games industry that brought you to it?

Its dynamism and creativity; competition tend to breed these two points, and I was struck by how fiercely competitive this industry is, but also how collaborative it is at the same time.

Not only this, but the mobile games industry tends to take more risks and is open to experimenting with burgeoning technologies, which was another core appeal.

Can people get in touch with you at the event? What sort of people would you like to connect with?

Of course. I’m on MeetToMatch, so you can find me there. If you’re a publisher or developer, I’d love to talk about AI as a positive tool and how Ludo can help in the pre-production stage of game development.

Book your ticket!

Want to attend the roundtable and more great sessions from our fantastic roster of speakers?

You can register for Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco right here.

Don’t forget, if you register for PGC San Francisco, you’ll also get access to the MeetToMatch platform for the entire week - not just for PGC!