CD Projekt Red is experimenting with artificial intelligence, but the company says it does not intend to hand the creation of games like The Witcher 4 over to AI.
During CD Projekt's September earnings call, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said the studio remains "predominantly using people" and described AI as a tool that can help in particular areas rather than something the company plans to rely on to create complete games.
Read CD Projekt's official H1 2026 earnings materials
That is a more nuanced position than saying CD Projekt rejects AI.
It does not.
Nowakowski explicitly acknowledged that AI is becoming part of game development and said it can be useful now and potentially more useful in the future. What he rejected was the idea of making complete CD Projekt games by depending on it.
For complex projects like the studio's RPGs, he also said he did not consider complete reliance on AI the right or ethical path.
That distinction matters because discussions around AI in games regularly collapse several very different technologies and workflows into one phrase.
A studio can experiment with machine-assisted tools without asking a generative system to replace quest writers, cinematic designers, artists or other creative developers. CD Projekt has not used this earnings call to publish a detailed list of every internal AI application, so it would be misleading to invent one.
The confirmed policy is narrower: AI can be a tool, while people remain central to making the games.
For The Witcher 4, that position carries more weight because of the kind of game CD Projekt is trying to build.
The company's investor materials describe its games as complex, nonlinear experiences focused on deep stories and genuine emotion. Those qualities rely on large numbers of interconnected creative decisions.
A Witcher quest is rarely memorable solely because an NPC gives the player an objective. The series built its reputation on consequences, character motivations, dialogue, environmental storytelling and choices that can complicate the apparent difference between the right and wrong outcome.
Keeping people at the center of that process is therefore more than a philosophical statement. It is tied directly to the product CD Projekt sells.
There is a cost to that model.
CD Projekt's official H1 presentation says The Witcher 4 is in full production and remains its largest active development project. The company reported 519 developers on the project as of the end of July.
That figure is context, not the subject. Player.One has already examined what a team of that scale means for a single RPG.
The new story is what CD Projekt says those people will continue doing.
Nowakowski's comments also should not be treated as a permanent contract with players. Development policies can change. AI tools themselves are changing quickly, and the studio's position in 2026 does not guarantee that every workflow will look identical several years from now.
CD Projekt itself left room for that evolution by saying AI could become more helpful.
What the company has committed to today is the larger principle: tools can change without making human developers optional.
That puts The Witcher 4 in an interesting position as AAA development becomes more expensive and publishers search for ways to produce enormous games more efficiently.
CD Projekt is making its biggest Witcher game while publicly saying the answer is still primarily people.
Whether that stance survives all the way through production will be worth watching.
