EA CEO: 85% of QA Work Is Now AI-Driven – But We Have More QA Staff Than Ever

Speaking at the newly launched iicon gaming summit in Las Vegas, EA CEO Andrew Wilson made notable remarks on the relationship between artificial intelligence and employment. He made it clear that at EA, AI is currently playing a role of “augmenting” rather than “displacing” human workers.

During a conversation with Fox Business Network’s Liz Claman, Wilson revealed: “I saw some data recently, I think, now almost all—like 85%—of our quality assurance [work] is done with some kind of machine learning or AI-driven algorithm.”

But he immediately added a seemingly counterintuitive fact: “Yet as a company, we hire more QA people than we ever have.”

Wilson explained that AI is currently used only for the most rudimentary QA tasks, such as “the simple stuff: turn the box on, turn the box off, boot it up, shut it down, does it crash, all these things.” What truly requires human effort is the in-depth analysis of the results generated by AI. As a result, the introduction of AI has not reduced QA roles – it has actually driven expansion in the department.

When asked whether there are any scenarios at EA where AI directly replaces human workers, Wilson responded: “So far, it’s been almost entirely augmentation.”

These remarks were made during the opening panel of the iicon conference. iicon is a new industry event operated by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the former organizer of E3, the world’s largest video game trade show. E3 was once the most anticipated annual event on the gaming calendar, but the ESA officially ended its involvement with E3 in 2023. In contrast, iicon has a lower profile and focuses on convening leaders from gaming, technology, entertainment, and sports to discuss industry convergence and future trends. One attendee described to a reporter that iicon is being positioned as the “Davos of gaming.”

It is worth noting that Wilson has previously described AI as the future of EA, and the company has laid off several hundred employees over the past couple of years. Therefore, despite his current emphasis on AI “augmenting rather than replacing,” there remains some skepticism about the long-term trend. Some analysts point out that as AI technology becomes more efficient and reliable, companies may eventually cut jobs to reduce unnecessary expenditure.

Wilson acknowledged that AI is profoundly changing game development processes, but he insisted that EA’s current reality is that AI handles repetitive tasks, allowing human employees to focus on higher-value analysis, judgment, and creative work – at least in QA, AI has actually led to more jobs, not fewer.