D&D General Hasbro CEO Says AI Integration Has Been "A Clear Success"

However "people make the decisions and people own the creative outcomes".
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We've known for some time that Hasbro CEO--and former president of Wizards of the Coast--Chris Cocks is an avid AI supporter and enthusiast. He previously noted that of the 30-40 people he games with regularly, "there's not a single person who doesn't use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas." In a 2025 interview he described himself as an "AI bull".

In Hasbro's latest earnings call, Cocks briefly addressed the use of AI within the company. While he mentions Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast and the digital studio teams, he doesn't specifically namecheck Dungeons & Dragons. However, he does tout Hasbro's AI integration as a "clear success", referring primarily to non-creative operations such as finances, supply chains, and general productivity enhancements, and emphasises that "people make the decisions and people own the creative outcomes". He also notes that individual teams choose whether or not to use AI.

So while it is clear that AI is deeply embedded in Hasbro's workflows, it is not clear to what extent that applies to Dungeons & Dragons. WotC has indicated multiple times that it will not use AI artwork, and its freelance contracts explicitly prohibit its use. The company also removed AI-generated artwork in 2023's Bigby's Presents: Glory of the Giants.

Before I close, I want to address AI, and how we're using it at Hasbro. We're taking a human-centric creator-led approach. AI is a tool that helps our teams move faster and focus on higher-value work, but people make the decisions and people own the creative outcomes. Teams also have choice in how they use it, including not to use it at all when it doesn't fit the work or the brand. We're beyond experimentation. We're deploying AI across financial planning, forecasting, order management, supply chain operations, training and everyday productivity. Under enterprise controls and clear guidelines around responsible use and IP protection. Anyone who knows me knows I'm an enthusiastic AI user and that mindset extends across the enterprise. We're partnering with best-in-class platforms, including Google Gemini, OpenAI and 11 labs to embed AI into workflows where it adds real value. The impact is tangible. Over the next year, we anticipate these workflows will free up more than 1 million hours of lower-value work, and we're reinvesting that capacity into innovation, creativity and serving fans. Our portfolio of IP and the creators and talent behind it are the foundation of this strategy. Great IP plus great storytelling is durable as technology evolves, and it positions us to benefit from disruption rather than being displaced by it.

In toys, AI-assisted design, paired with 3D printing has fundamentally improved our process. We've reduced time from concept to physical prototype by roughly 80%, enabling faster iteration and more experimentation with human judgment and human craft determining what ultimately gets selected and turned into a final product. We believe the winners in AI will be companies that combine deep IP, creative talent and disciplined deployment. That's exactly where Hasbro sits. As we enter 2026, we view playing to Win and more importantly, the execution behind it by our Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast and digital studio teams as a clear success.
- Chris Cocks, Hasbro CEO​

Wizards of the Coast's most recent statement on AI said "For 50 years, D&D has been built on the innovation, ingenuity, and hard work of talented people who sculpt a beautiful, creative game. That isn't changing. Our internal guidelines remain the same with regards to artificial intelligence tools: We require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final D&D products. We work with some of the most talented artists and creatives in the world, and we believe those people are what makes D&D great."

A small survey of about 500 users right here on EN World in April 2025 indicated that just over 60% of users would not buy D&D products made with AI.
 

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We've used this summary software for over a year now and I'd never go back. It makes just playing and not worrying about notes and such so easy. It makes picking up the next session without trying to recall where we left off a breeze.
Two sessions in and I'm hapy enough to give it another month, but I wouldn't say 'm where you are. Our last session, it couldn't have misread the situation worse if it had been programmed to, plus it cut out 20 minutes early on the recording, so it missed a few key deatils. plus, it thinks I'm three different people... Still, it's not bad.
 

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I of course could always be wrong. But I think the drunken haze of early adoption is finally dispersing and the reality is slowly, slowly setting in: it's an interesting technology desperately searching for a prime use case.
I would say it's now found use cases. Anthropic (today) reported annualized revenue of $14B, primarily from enterprise clients and products like Claude Code.
 

Yes, they rolled them out, and yes; they have a responsible AI usage learning program we had to take and pass, and a policy that we all have to agree to. I think most major companies do the same. There's too much liability otherwise.

Yes, but note that point - the policy is there for liability, and being able to put responsibility for a failing on an individual contributor, rather than on the tool, or the company as a whole.

But, maybe your folks are in the 5%. If so, congrats.
 


Yes, but note that point - the policy is there for liability, and being able to put responsibility for a failing on an individual contributor, rather than on the tool, or the company as a whole.

But, maybe your folks are in the 5%. If so, congrats.
I just simplified it. The AI policy that we have is actually an entire AI governance framework which deals with a variety of different subjects, including evaluation, onboarding, how they should be developed, deployed and used responsibly, Responsibility and Ethics, requirements for Human oversight, Transparency and Disclosure for AI generated content, compliance with local and international regulations, risk management (including monitoring for bias, discrimination, fraud), privacy and data protection.
 

How much does it have to screw up before it is considered bad?
It’s tough to describe… other than missing the last 20-minutes, and misattributing who said what a few times, it did a pretty great job of recording what actually happened… it just hilariously misread who the heroes and villains of a situation the players intervened in, to the point of casting them as villainous outlaws. (I’m going roll with it and treat it as an account from a biased town crier.)

It even sends tailored summaries to each player focused on what they did in the session—which is a cool idea—but it critiqued one of the players for getting a crit (!?) rather than trying to peacefully subdue the baddies in the middle of perpetrating a hate crime that had just murdered someone a few days before. It was weird.

So to answer your question, I can deal with the AI’s amusing “opinions” since the recap is like 90% accurate and saves me a bunch of time… plus we get a laugh.
 

It’s tough to describe… other than missing the last 20-minutes, and misattributing who said what a few times, it did a pretty great job of recording what actually happened… it just hilariously misread who the heroes and villains of a situation the players intervened in, to the point of casting them as villainous outlaws. (I’m going roll with it and treat it as an account from a biased town crier.)

It even sends tailored summaries to each player focused on what they did in the session—which is a cool idea—but it critiqued one of the players for getting a crit (!?) rather than trying to peacefully subdue the baddies in the middle of perpetrating a hate crime that had just murdered someone a few days before. It was weird.

So to answer your question, I can deal with the AI’s amusing “opinions” since the recap is like 90% accurate and saves me a bunch of time… plus we get a laugh.
Google's AI overview informed me that The Shambles, a picturesque area of York, was inspired by Harry Potter.
 


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