Xbox senior business strategy manager Brandon Stirrup said hundreds of employees use artificial intelligence, drawing attention to the technology’s role in gaming as an industry survey shows concern among developers.
In posts on X dated Oct. 18 and 19, Stirrup wrote, “We’re using AI.” He estimated that hundreds of Xbox employees use the technology and argued that game companies hesitate to discuss it because they expect a negative response from players. The employee count is his estimate, rather than a figure released by Microsoft.
Stirrup said he could be fired for speaking out. He also said he made a rough game with AI over two days, spending about three hours actively working on it. The game-making account is his description of the work.
Xbox had disclosed game-related AI projects before Stirrup’s posts. In 2023, it announced a partnership with Inworld AI to develop tools for game dialogue and narratives. Xbox introduced Muse in 2025, describing it as a gameplay research model built by Microsoft Research with Ninja Theory, a studio in Xbox Game Studios. Xbox said each project’s creative leaders would decide how to use generative AI.
More than 2,300 game industry professionals responded to the Game Developers Conference’s 2026 survey. It found that 36% used generative AI in their jobs, while 52% thought it had a negative effect on the industry. The survey measured the views of people working in games, not players, whose expected response Stirrup cited as a reason for companies’ reluctance to discuss AI.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma announced Xbox Labs on Oct. 13 as a small team of game makers, engineers and scientists exploring new ways to play and create. Her announcement discussed coding agents without identifying Labs as an AI division. Sharma said wider access to games and more chances for players to create could benefit them, even if those changes challenge Xbox’s existing business models.
Sharma said Xbox would share tools developed by the team with other game makers. The announcement gave no release date.
