EA Staff Struggle as Management Mandates AI Use Globally
EA Staff Struggle as Management Mandates AI Use for ‘Just About Everything’
Electronic Arts (EA) is aggressively integrating artificial intelligence (AI) across its global operations. However, a recent report indicates that this corporate mandate is creating significant friction and struggle among the company’s nearly 15,000 employees. Management has reportedly spent the past year urging staff to use AI tools for “just about everything.” This has led to concerns about job security and an increased workload due to the tools’ instability.
The AI Mandate and Internal Tools
According to internal documents and anonymous employee accounts, EA’s leadership has pushed staff to apply AI to a wide range of tasks:
- Code and Art Generation: The mandate includes using AI to generate code during game development and to create concept art in the early stages of design.
- Managerial Advice: Even mid-level managers are encouraged to use AI-based tools, such as the company’s internal chatbot, ReefGPT, to receive advice on sensitive communications like performance reviews and promotions.
- Training and Adoption: Staff are required to take multiple AI training courses. They are encouraged to treat generative AI as a “thought partner” and utilize the tools daily to expedite their work processes.
Flaws, Friction, and Job Security Concerns
Despite the C-suite’s strong commitment to the technology—which follows EA’s recent $55 billion acquisition by a consortium of private investors reportedly looking to cut costs—the tools themselves are proving problematic for developers across the globe.
- Flawed Outputs: Employees report that tools like ReefGPT often produce flawed code and inaccurate outputs, sometimes referred to as “hallucinations.” These errors must be manually corrected by human developers, which ultimately takes more time than if they had completed the work themselves.
- Increased Workload: The need to debug and correct AI-generated content is reportedly increasing the overall workload for staff, directly contradicting the stated goal of boosting productivity.
- Layoffs and Fear: The push for AI integration has coincided with layoffs. One former senior QA designer at Respawn Entertainment, who was laid off last spring along with nearly 100 colleagues, suspects the job cut was at least partly due to AI tools being able to perform a key part of his job: reviewing and summarizing playtester feedback. Creative staff, such as artists and level designers, are also apprehensive, fearing that by training these AI models on their work, they are effectively contributing to their own replacement.
The friction has been so high that employees have openly mocked the policy in internal Slack channels, highlighting the disconnect between management’s expectations and the reality of using the experimental tools.
 origin: Videogameschronicle
