EA exec Laura Miele says AI is sparking 'a real rise of creativity' at its studios

EA president of enterprise development Laura Miele told The Game Business at a Summer Game Fest showcase that AI tools are driving what she calls "a real rise of creativity" across EA's studios — by stripping out tedious work and letting developers focus on the creative side of their jobs.

Miele was asked whether AI would shorten development cycles overall. Her answer was a cautious "perhaps in some parts," but she was more enthusiastic about what she's already seen: faster prototyping, quicker alignment on creative decisions, and less grunt work clogging up pipelines. She didn't name specific tools or projects, but framed the shift as something she's personally witnessed across EA's workflows. Her stated goal is to "remove friction" for developers and help them build career-defining work — and she believes AI is already doing that.

The broader context is harder to ignore. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in 2024 that roughly 60% of the company's development processes have "high feasibility" to benefit from generative AI, and that EA is "embracing it deeply." The company is also reportedly leaning on AI to cut operating costs — relevant given the $20 billion in debt financing EA took on as part of its $55 billion acquisition by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Meanwhile, EA has laid off hundreds of employees across BioWare, Respawn, and Cliffhanger Games — which was shut down entirely — since the deal was announced in September 2025, with another round of cuts reportedly hitting earlier this week. Many employees suspect AI adoption is being used to justify those layoffs.

Miele's comments land in a wider industry conversation where the optimism is almost entirely coming from the top. A GDC study found more developers than ever believe generative AI is hurting the games industry — a sharp contrast to the executive talking points from EA, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick, and others. The gap between what leadership sees and what developers on the ground experience is becoming one of the defining tensions in game development right now.