On Tuesday, Electronic Arts (EA) hosted its annual Investor Day, a three-hour presentation aimed at updating investors on the company’s strategic direction and its efforts to increase profitability in the coming year.
However, anyone watching might have thought they were attending an AI technology conference, given how prominently the technology was featured throughout the event.
AI was repeatedly emphasized as a key element in EA’s future, and its importance was highlighted at nearly every opportunity.
Though it’s been clear for some time that EA, along with other gaming companies, has been investing heavily in AI, the extent to which it dominated the discussion was striking.
AI was mentioned in nearly every segment of the presentation, had its own dedicated section near the end, and was described by EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson in his opening speech as “the very core of our business” — a surprising shift in the mission of a company known primarily for developing and publishing video games.
We watched the full three-hour Investor Day presentation and compiled all the AI-related highlights to give a clear picture of how EA is using AI and what we might expect in the coming years as its investments in this technology bear fruit.
AI was first mentioned right at the start, during Andrew Wilson’s introductory remarks. In his speech, Wilson referred to AI as “the very core of our business” and not simply a “buzzword.”
He revealed that EA is currently working on over 100 active “novel AI projects,” ranging from practical applications to more experimental ones.
Wilson categorized these initiatives into three groups: efficiency, expansion, and transformation.
The “efficiency” projects, Wilson explained, are not just about reducing costs but also about enabling faster, cheaper, and higher-quality development.
As an example, he pointed to College Football 25, stating that the game’s 150 unique stadiums and over 11,000 player likenesses could not have been created without AI.
Wilson went on to say that AI could enable developers to produce “richer colors” for “more brilliant worlds,” create characters with “more depth and intelligence,” and bring “more authenticity and deeper immersion” to EA’s sports games.
Regarding transformation, Wilson discussed the potential for AI to help create entirely new types of experiences, particularly in areas related to user-generated content.
Chief Strategy Officer Mihir Vaidya later expanded on the concept of “transformation” in his segment, but Wilson made it clear from the start that he was highly optimistic about the potential of AI.
Throughout the presentation, EA executives showcased several ways AI is already being integrated into the company’s existing games.
Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment, Technology, and Central Development, introduced The Sims Hub, the first AI-driven feature coming to The Sims universe.
This platform will include “supercharged discovery tools” powered by AI, enabling players to find user-generated content more easily.
One feature she demonstrated was a photo search tool that allows players to upload images of real-world houses and receive user-generated homes that match their design.
Another AI application she highlighted allows players to generate Sims characters by uploading images of celebrities or people in specific outfits.
Miele also discussed EA’s vast asset library, which she likened to the “Smithsonian of game assets.”
This massive database of assets, accumulated over the years from various EA games, is now being used to train machine learning models and large language models, which are being utilized by EA’s “Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division” (SEED). One notable project coming out of SEED is the “Script to Scene” tool.
Script to Scene allows developers to create characters, direct performances, and design worlds using simple text prompts. Miele demonstrated this by instructing the AI to “build a Parisian-style residential building.”
She then modified it, making it taller, turning it into a modern high-rise, and expanding it into a larger neighborhood. With tools like Script to Scene, Miele believes EA developers could eventually create entire game scenes using just text commands.
After Miele, Cam Weber, President of EA Sports, took the stage to discuss how AI is influencing EA Sports games. He talked about FC IQ, a system that uses “tactical AI” and real-world data to improve how players and teams behave in EA Sports FC 25.
Weber also echoed Wilson’s earlier comments about College Football 25, highlighting how AI-powered stadium creation tools reduced development time by about 70%, allowing the team to focus more on each school’s unique traditions and atmosphere.
Chief Experience Officer David Tinson briefly introduced an early prototype of a predictive simulation tool.
This tool combines game data, AI, and IQ ratings to simulate hypothetical matchups, predict game outcomes, and determine which teams are the best.
Mihir Vaidya later returned to the stage to focus solely on AI and the company’s experimental work in this area.
He opened his talk by comparing the early stages of AI to the early days of YouTube, saying that just as makeup tutorials and cat videos were initially dismissed as trivial, AI’s current applications may seem simple but will become much more powerful over time.
Vaidya explained that EA’s experimental AI projects aren’t meant to replace traditional AAA games but to create new categories that complement existing games.
He showcased examples of AI-driven gameplay experiences, such as a game where players asked an AI to create a maze out of cardboard boxes, then made it more complex and multi-level.
The AI also helped generate characters and weapons from EA’s asset library, enabling the players to navigate the maze and engage in combat.
Vaidya also gave a glimpse into how AI could be used to make in-game characters more believable.
While the demo wasn’t fully shown during the presentation, he revealed that investors could interact with an AI simulation of soccer star Jude Bellingham after the event.
This AI version of Bellingham could respond to questions about his experiences, such as playing at Bernabéu stadium, using a likeness and voice simulation.
Vaidya concluded his segment by introducing Project AIR, an initiative focused on using AI to create social ecosystems. This project would allow users to generate characters and have text-based interactions with them, sharing these conversations with friends.
In one demonstration, a user generated a “legendary investor” character and pitched business ideas to him, using AI to help refine the pitch and ultimately succeed.
EA’s Investor Day was dominated by discussions of AI, particularly generative AI, which is fundamentally different from the artificial intelligence that has been used in video games for decades.
While traditional AI governs how non-player characters behave in games, generative AI creates entirely new content—whether it’s images, text, or sounds—based on existing data.
While EA has made efforts to address some of the ethical concerns surrounding generative AI, such as training its models on proprietary material to avoid copyright infringement, other questions remain.
For instance, EA has secured permission from Jude Bellingham to use his likeness and voice for its AI simulations, but will the company obtain similar consent from every person it uses in the future?
How will this technology affect voice actors, many of whom are currently striking for protections against AI use? EA has yet to provide clear answers to these questions.
The impact of AI on the company’s developers is another area of concern. While EA portrays tools like Script to Scene as time-savers for developers, the video game industry has seen widespread layoffs in the last two years, just as AI has become more prominent.
There is growing unease among developers about the potential for AI to replace creative roles in the industry. So far, EA has not addressed these concerns directly.
EA has a history of jumping on new technology trends and retreating when they don’t pan out, but this time feels different.
The company is deeply invested in AI, and while some of the experiments showcased during Investor Day are still in their early stages, it’s clear that AI is now a fundamental part of EA’s business strategy.
Investors may be excited about these developments, but fans of EA’s legacy as a video game company might wonder why AI, rather than games, is now the focus.
