Nearly half of respondents expect AI-assisted development to be the most significant industry trend for the next three years
Image credit: Gamescom News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Aug. 11, 2026, 2:05 p.m. Follow Koelnmesse GmbH - gamescom Gamescom Dev has released its annual speaker survey results, revealing that 83% of respondents expect AI to impact team structure or productivity.
Nearly half of the 100 speakers surveyed identified AI-assisted development as the most significant industry trend for the next three years, followed by hardware and RAM prices (28%), the creator economy (7%), and user-generated content (5%).
30% of respondents prefer minimal AI involvement in development, down from 33% last year. In contrast, 34% believe code and production would benefit most from AI assistance.
Regarding AI’s impact on jobs, 36% believe it will change roles rather than reduce team sizes, while 33% expect smaller teams. 14% anticipate higher individual output, and 17% do not expect workforce reductions.
More than half of respondents identified economic uncertainty as the industry’s biggest challenge, followed by market saturation (38%), discoverability (35%), and rising development costs (30%).
To improve discoverability, respondents want greater transparency in platform algorithms (32%), better storefront recommendations (22%), and more curated editorial coverage (21%).
Looking ahead, 37% of respondents view smaller development teams as the greatest opportunity, followed by community building and new publishing models (both at 15%).
Respondents expressed mixed views on what business or monetisation model would dominate the market over the next three years.
Digital and physical premium games led with 29%, followed by live service (24%) and free-to-play with in-game items (21%).