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​

​

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.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Was it this alleged test?
USAF Calls Killer-AI Report ‘Anecdotal’
US Air Force denies AI drone attacked operator in test

Ah, well if the Air Force denies it, then it surely never happened!

(I say this as an Army Aviation guy who had a secret clearance)

So you have a citation for this? Because recent evidence is exactly the opposite:

Air Force says AI tools outperform human planners in 'battle management' experiment - Breaking Defense

In a complex multi-service, multi-domain scenario — not typically covered in Air Force training — the best of several AI tools generated tactical “courses of action” not only faster than military professionals but also with fewer errors.

breakingdefense.com

That was 3 years later. A lot can happen in 3 years. As for a citation, it came from Colonel Tucker Hamilton, (chief of AI test and operations) at a conference from the Royal Aeronautical Society. So right out of the horse's mouth, so-to-speak. He later said he "misspoke", but his actual quote is pretty clear. It seems clear to me that someone higher up told him to retract his statement.

 

[tetrasodium]

It was an Air Force test to use AI to go after enemy air defense platforms. The AI started killing anything that it perceived as a threat to that goal. So the operator gave instructions to not kill X,Y, or Z. Then the AI killed the operator. So they added commands to never kill the operator. So the AI started destroying communication towers so it couldn't receive messages that would prevent it from killing.

Going to after with @Gorgon Zee, this sounds more like Hollywood plot. Things I've read about that darpa/air force n-16 fighter drone program were more along the lines of needing to push it so that it was less willing to put itself at the risk if it meant getting a kill on a target because it wasn't giving itself enough margin for error due to unexpected while piloting very very expensive fighters even though it was correct in it's risk assessment

 

[chuckdee]

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.

That's not the case. In my company, we have little to no creative stuff, and we still have extensive guardrails over how it's used, especially in what sources are used for the work. Responsible use does not just cover creative, and IPs are not just covered by media and such.

 

[Retros_x]

One of the AI ads during the Super Bowl was pretty much exactly targeting drudge office work.

tbf I have nothing against automating away annoying busy work.

 

[Retros_x]

Did it, though? The work you’d have to do reading the summary, finding the parts it got wrong, and re-writing them probably isn’t significantly less than the time it would have taken you to just write the summary yourself, and for whatever time it may have saved it will be a lower quality product.

Really depends. Some people are way slower in writing and creating phrases and much faster in analyzing a text and correcting it. Two different modes of thinking.