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.

 

[Mournblade94]

My point is exactly what I wrote: people have trouble telling the difference between the two. That is a fact, well established in many, many tests (my personal example is just a relevant anecdote). Then you added (and continue to add) assumptions that have nothing to do with what I wrote.

Specifically, I was responding to a a silly meme implying that people now understand what a soul is, having seen AI art (implying that it has none). It's a cute meme, but the fact is that people do not easily distinguish between AI and non-AI content. If they did, then we wouldn't be having a lot of these discussions.

It is now very hard to tell if the AI user is skilled. There are tells that are being worked away, so much that it is really hard. What I do read is that Younger people are better at discerning it than older folks, because they have developed with Digital from their start. I used to be able to spot it easily, but now it is very hard. I saw an animal video involving lions the other day and I could not tell until I watched the ROAR carefully. The mouth just didn't move right to make a lion Roar. I would not have been able to tell otherwise.

Another one of a golden retriever saving a baby in the water. Something about the jump was off. But I had to watch it several times to reach the conclusion it was AI. We are at the point that you will not be able to tell. And AI art is getting much better at hiding that it is AI.

 

[Marc17]

Which raises questions on how material with partial AI content can be treated.

I am imagining that it will be much like fair use or transformative art, and anybody can claim anything until somebody takes it to court and gets a ruling on that individual case.

 

[Gradine]

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks on AI, KPop Demon Hunters, and Harry Potter

“Megatron makes fun of you for not picking thrash rock”

www.theverge.com

Cocks is still out here banging the AI drum while also insisting that dumping a boatload of money on J.K. Rowling's front porch is "separating the art from the artist" and it's really got me thinking that the D&D campaign I just started is going to be my last

 

[Moving Pictures]

So, because I'm not a total chud, and because I try to keep an open mind, I spent the last week trying to do something positive/constructive with an AI LLM, because some folks see vary pro AI.... and I am the opposite.

I remain largely unchanged. While the LLM was able to create some meritous content (roadside inns and NPCs in them) t, I found
1) It "forgot" basic information after a short period of time
2) it tended to re-use names frequently
3) When creating NPCs, it frequently mis-assigned those NPCs, forgot what they were
4) No sense of classs/races- inconsistent.

Summary: I would have had to have spent as much time correcting garbage as creating. Bn fact, by contrast, I was able to rapidly create similar content using the old wet meat between my ears and some handy-dandy dice, and did so in about a third of the time.

It failed dismally on map creation.

About the only thing it did do that was of any use whatsoever was it randomized the outcomes of next season's rugby matches, generating tables for each week. That was useful.

 

[The Firebird]

So, because I'm not a total chud, and because I try to keep an open mind, I spent the last week trying to do something positive/constructive with an AI LLM, because some folks see vary pro AI.... and I am the opposite.

I remain largely unchanged. While the LLM was able to create some meritous content (roadside inns and NPCs in them) t, I found
1) It "forgot" basic information after a short period of time
2) it tended to re-use names frequently
3) When creating NPCs, it frequently mis-assigned those NPCs, forgot what they were
4) No sense of classs/races- inconsistent.

Summary: I would have had to have spent as much time correcting garbage as creating. Bn fact, by contrast, I was able to rapidly create similar content using the old wet meat between my ears and some handy-dandy dice, and did so in about a third of the time.

It failed dismally on map creation.

View attachment 431450

About the only thing it did do that was of any use whatsoever was it randomized the outcomes of next season's rugby matches, generating tables for each week. That was useful.

How were you using it? Those are the issues I'd anticipate from a chatbot interface. I've not done campaign generation in a while but I've worked on projects with similar issues. If you use something like Claude Code or Codex, you can create some directories and files to store memory (NPCs.md, Cities.md, whatever) and generation tables ("here is a d100 table of names. Generate new ones via np.randint()"). Then your chats in that directory will be more effective.

I don't know if that will make LLMs a good tool for you, especially if you find the creativity lacking, but it should help with the memory issues.