Microsoft Gaming’s new leaders Asha Sharma and Matt Booty have played down fears that the company will become reliant on AI in the creation of Xbox content.
Microsoft Gaming’s new leadership has moved quickly to calm fears that artificial intelligence will overrun the Xbox ecosystem, insisting there will be no mandate forcing developers to adopt the technology.
Following the retirement of longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer, new CEO Asha Sharma — previously head of Microsoft’s CoreAI product group — has faced scrutiny over how heavily AI might influence the company’s future direction.
Speaking alongside newly promoted Chief Content Officer Matt Booty, Sharma made clear that creative integrity will remain central to Xbox.
Sharma told Windows Central: “I think that with any new technology, it brings possibilities as a tool, but even more important, especially now – we need to draw lines on what we won’t do.
“That’s what I attempted to do when I shared my opening letter. I will not flood our ecosystem with slop.”
She added: “We won’t have careless output, we won’t have derivative work. I deeply believe in the words that I shared previously there.”
Booty echoed that sentiment, stressing there is no internal pressure from Microsoft to push AI adoption across studios.
He explained: “We’ve got no pressure from Microsoft, there are no directives on AI coming down.
“Our teams are free to use any technologies that might be beneficial, whether it’s helping write code or check for bugs – things more in the production pipeline. At the end of the day as Asha said, we’re committed to art made by people. Technology is only in support of that.”
He noted that developers have historically embraced new tools quickly, comparing AI’s arrival to the widespread adoption of Photoshop in game studios, but insisted it should remain complementary rather than transformative.
New Xbox leadership team allays AI concerns
