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

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​

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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.

 

[Charlaquin]

The "one guy at my workplace who's weirdly pro-AI" is very sadly my boss (the Dean of our Library, no less!) It is endlessly aggravating

I imagine it’s a lot of people’s bosses. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more AI folks in upper management at the museum, because AI seems to appeal more to people in positions of power. But at least among my team there’s just the one. Turns out most, but not all, science educators understand the limitations and social and environmental costs of Gen AI and are not fans. Dean of a library being pro AI though? Oof, that sucks.

 

[Charlaquin]

No one I know uses AI in their campaigns. I know my friends tend to be anti-AI, so maybe that's skewed, but I have a hard time believing so many people out there are using AI in their games.

I have a much easier time believing that Chris Cocks and all of his “friends” use AI in everything they do than I have believing any of them actually play D&D. He’s a business executive. Those people are obsessed with AI.

 

[Scribe]

It's notable that the wording here is extremely careful.

All the actual examples given are ones that consumers don't really care about - "financial planning, forecasting, order management, supply chain operations, training and everyday productivity".

But they're clearly using it in ways other than those because they say "Under enterprise controls and clear guidelines around responsible use and IP protection", which like, you wouldn't need if the listed uses were the only ones. You only really need "responsible use" and "IP protection" if you're using AI in creative stuff. Which people don't like.

You have to say that stuff as well, otherwise you are broadcasting that you are sending your IP and internal data out into the wider AI/ChatGPT net.

They should certainly have their own enterprise instance of these tools that are internally controlled.

 

[Scribe]

Anyone have the betting pool on the first bankruptcy due to the C-Suite basing a critical decision on an AI generated report?

There wasnt a bankruptcy, but there was a big event, Australia maybe? Government? Ah yes, Deloitte. I dont have great experience working with them so, not surprised.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

The use case for GenAI isn't "write me Lord of the Rings", the use case is "take all the statistical information from my scientific experiment and present it concisely in natural language understandable to a layman". Then, of course, as a human, you check your work, but that just saved you hours of labor or saved the money that you or your institution might have had to pay to a technical writer.

That’s what students are for. And they (in theory) learn stuff while they’re writing. If I don’t have a student handy, I’ll write it myself - it’s not much work and it helps keep the old brain functioning.

 

[slobster]

I guess I'm one of the lonely GMs who actually does use AI for my games. Not usually for creative stuff (though it can be great for shaking me out of writers block in the same way that mad libs can provoke creative breakthroughs from utter randomness), but for example it's really useful for creating player facing resources. If you tell it to generate a character creation document for instance, say that you want core WotC stuff to be allowed, standard point buy, also this and that splatbook, and then summarize what core competencies should be covered somewhere in the party for an undead hunting campaign with investigative work often needed. Also take inspiration from x, y and z books and movies, and summarize the important factions and locations from my attached campaign notes in a way that inspires players for creating dynamic back stories.

I can write that rough request in a few minutes, and then the AI will give me an honestly pretty useful document that would have taken me 2 hours to write. 15 minutes of fact checking later and I have it ready to go, and honestly it's a lifesaver for me as a busy guy. Lets me spend more prep time on the fun stuff. Works a treat for other tasks like creating a list of vendor goods on the fly, generating names, generating random art pieces in a dragon hoard, etc.

Im experimenting with AI all the time, and while it's not at all revolutionary in how I GM, it is currently a real time saver and can take some of the parts I find less fun about session prep and put them on a robot assistant instead.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

That’s what students are for. And they (in theory) learn stuff while they’re writing. If I don’t have a student handy, I’ll write it myself - it’s not much work and it helps keep the old brain functioning.

I think Kant says something about using people as tools. Why not use a tool as a tool instead?

 

[Black Dougal]

I think the big question with AI doing a lot of that stuff is "Why would I want to read something nobody wrote?" and that very much applies to powerpoints. It's bad enough, criminal even that 100 slide powerpoints exist (anyone who uses more than 10 slides for a non-super-technical presentation should be shot, frankly), it's worse if some mindless machine slapped them together, because likely the vast majority of them have no meaningful information in them, it's just cargo-cult stuff, effectively.

Spreadsheets are a little different because you're not typically using GenAI to er, gen. You're usually using it to just reformat or speed up a process. Which is kind of what it should be doing. Really the problem with GenAI is the Gen, not the AI.

In my work life AI has been very helpful when it comes to spreadsheets. I'm a one man show so bandwidth has increased quite a bit. I've worked two clients away from their chaotic Excel spreadsheets tracking all their work to a modern Airtable solution. In the past I would have never even suggested the migrations but with AI what would have taken a month takes me 3 to 4 days.

I also do some work for cities and crime tracking data and it works wonders there as well.

I do use AI in my games. I use Google Notebook to find book data and rules quickly, I also use AI to reformat pdf text and or to create tables formatted for quick FGU imports. Nothing on the "creative" side though.

I'm with you, the Gen is not what I want or find useful. But being able to take spreadsheet data or format data quickly is a godsend for my freelancing. Ironically, I also just did a complete brand and website redesign to fix all the gen AI chaos a client created to churn out a lame and bad looking brand...so a win there as well lol.

 

[Distracted DM]

I guess I'm one of the lonely GMs who actually does use AI for my games. Not usually for creative stuff (though it can be great for shaking me out of writers block in the same way that mad libs can provoke creative breakthroughs from utter randomness), but for example it's really useful for creating player facing resources. If you tell it to generate a character creation document for instance, say that you want core WotC stuff to be allowed, standard point buy, also this and that splatbook, and then summarize what core competencies should be covered somewhere in the party for an undead hunting campaign with investigative work often needed. Also take inspiration from x, y and z books and movies, and summarize the important factions and locations from my attached campaign notes in a way that inspires players for creating dynamic back stories.

I can write that rough request in a few minutes, and then the AI will give me an honestly pretty useful document that would have taken me 2 hours to write. 15 minutes of fact checking later and I have it ready to go, and honestly it's a lifesaver for me as a busy guy. Lets me spend more prep time on the fun stuff. Works a treat for other tasks like creating a list of vendor goods on the fly, generating names, generating random art pieces in a dragon hoard, etc.

Im experimenting with AI all the time, and while it's not at all revolutionary in how I GM, it is currently a real time saver and can take some of the parts I find less fun about session prep and put them on a robot assistant instead.

Based on DnDBeyond and subreddit posts, AI's getting used out there. A lot of the posts are "my player/DM sent me pages of AI-gen writing, why should I read what they couldn't bother to write?" but occasionally there are posts that aren't so negative. So you're not alone.. but in creator-friendly spaces like many RPG forums, I think there'll be fewer AI supporters.

With time, things might change (for better or worse). I know I've certainly eased up on my Not Using AI Ever For Anything stance, which does make me feel like a hypocrite, but that's another discussion.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

I think Kant says something about using people as tools. Why not use a tool as a tool instead?

People learn by doing. Students need to be able to summarize their own work by themselves in order to grow into independent researchers. PIs who use their students as a mere pair of hands are doing them a disservice.