Take-Two boss says AI meets company's business tenants, reiterates tech won't replace creatives and artists

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick talks about his thoughts and views on AI, saying that the technology can help supercharge the creative potential of artists by reducing mundane work.

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AI adoption is on the rise as video game companies seek ways to reduce costs and speed up production schedules. The industry is more competitive than ever, and publishers are keen to chase the latest trends before consumer tastes shift to the next big thing. AI has been a contentious topic because these cost reductions are being used to justify layoffs while AI itself is simultaneously being used for more widespread tasks, potentially reducing the need for so many workers.

Even companies like Take-Two Interactive are utilizing AI in their own way, and despite this usage, company CEO Strauss Zelnick still has the same level-headed take on AI: it won't replace artists or creatives, instead empowering them to do higher-level work. AI can't replace artists because it can't replicate the magic required to make big hits, or the same kind of prowess that Rockstar Games flexes with GTA V and the upcoming GTA 6.

At a recent on-stage interview at the Semafor World Economy 2026 event, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick affirmed that AI addresses all three of the company's main business tenants, but also reiterates that the technology isn't going to start taking the jobs or responsibilities of creators.

Q. Whether you scale it or not, how does AI impact quality and creativity?

A. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick: The 3-part strategy of Take-Two is: Be the most creative, the most innovative, the most efficient. We think AI informs all three.

Anything that you can do that reduces mundane work means that our creators can do more exciting work.

When I started the video games business, believe it or not in 1993, if you wanted to create a lawn, artists had to create individual blades of grass otherwise it looked like concrete. Today, if one of my artists--and there are thousands of them--if one of them wants to create a lawn there's a lawn button and that populates a lawn. Just image that AI does that on steroids.

So, what does that mean?

It does not mean that all of my artists are now out of work. That's the mistake of AI. They won't be out of work, they will be doing higher-quality work. They don't care about lawns anymore, they care about this [hypothetical] incredible creature.

Our creators have to take backward-looking AI tools and create forward-looking [creatures] in order to make hits. So our creators have to do that.