Patrick Söderlund: AI is an accelerator-not a headcount strategy
Patrick Söderlund, CEO of the Swedish studio behind Arc Raiders and The Finals, says artificial intelligence is there to speed up development, not replace people. His message is direct: this is a people industry, and that won't change.
The comments follow criticism of the studio's AI use across recent releases, including the extraction shooter Arc Raiders.
What he actually said
"We don't use artificial intelligence to not have to hire people or replace people or job groups," Söderlund said. "We have several voice actors that we work with that are on contract… We will pay for their voices, and sometimes using an artificial voice gets us to update the game a lot faster."
He added: "We couldn't have built or serviced the games we've done without some help from artificial intelligence-but most importantly through smart investment in tools, pipelines, technology, and incredible people. This is a people industry. I don't envision games being done automatically by some artificial intelligence."
Why this matters for engineering and live ops
The takeaway is simple: use AI to compress iteration cycles and remove drudge work, while keeping humans in the loop for quality, voice, and accountability. That's how you sustain a weekly release train without burning out teams.
- AI for speed, not substitution: temp VO, quick edits, and faster content loops-finals come from contracted talent.
- Pipelines first: content tooling, localization flows, test scaffolds, and CI/CD that make weekly updates realistic.
- Clear update cadence: treat content drops like release trains with feature flags and rollback plans.
- Guardrails for creative work: consent, contracts, and compensation when using synthetic voices or likeness.
- Metrics that matter: track cycle time from change request to live, and the cost (people hours) per update.
How to operationalize this approach
- Scope AI to well-bounded tasks: placeholder voice lines, localization stubs, asset tagging, and bug triage summaries.
- Keep human approvals: require sign-off for VO, narrative beats, and live balance changes.
- Instrument your pipeline: automate build, test, and deploy, with instant diff previews for audio and text changes.
- Set legal and ethical rules: written consent for voice cloning, retention limits for training data, and opt-out paths.
- Measure and iterate: monitor release throughput, defect escape rate, and "time-to-content-change" weekly.
Context
The Finals has shipped updates every week since launch-Söderlund credits AI-assisted workflows alongside better tools and strong teams. Arc Raiders, released in October, became the most successful global launch in parent company Nexon's history.
Further reading and upskilling
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework for practical guardrails around AI use in production.
- AI courses by job role for engineers and technical leaders building AI-augmented pipelines.
Your membership also unlocks:
