Gaming firm MPL bets on AI to boost development cycles, write code faster

When it comes to changing the workflows or pushing minor features, the gaming company is encouraging its developers to outsource repetitive tasks to an AI agent or code editors

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer an ancillary for software teams; it is the new engine that is driving development speed at scale. Even fast-moving yet nascent industries are tapping into it to improve product pipelines in a bid to ship features faster, though not without its limitations.

 

Take the case of Mobile Premier League (MPL), an online gaming platform. When it comes to changing the workflows or pushing minor features, the company is encouraging its developers to outsource repetitive tasks to an AI agent or code editors.

 

“We are trying to figure out how we can adopt AI in our workforce which includes helping developers to write code faster as well as better. We realised some journeys can be outsourced to an AI. Like for example, changing a flow within the system, or the size of a button,” said Tarun Bisht, vice president, MPL.

 

Bisht explained that development cycle time can be cut down by 30-40 per cent after absorbing AI in internal processes.

 

“The key area where it has been helpful is for small code bases. For large code ones, it is improving with time. In some cases, the development time (is cut down) by 30 to 40 per cent, but in places such as a large code base, it might not be helpful because the context becomes quite high,” he explained.

 

As a platform, MPL has more than 60 games across different categories. These include sports games, puzzles, casual and board games. Titles such as ludo, snakes-and-ladders, and chess are among the popular ones on the platform.

 

The company, which was founded in 2018, has raised $396 million in funding so far, according to data from market intelligence platform Tracxn. Since then, it has expanded to geographies such as the US, Brazil, and Nigeria.

 

“It’s not just the scale, but latency can also become a challenge where we need to ensure that the data movement for users in US, Brazil, or Nigeria can get as fast as possible with respect to Indian users so that there’s no lag in the system,” he added.

 

He added that building tech stacks tailored to each geography was a learning moment in the use of AI.

 

“The one learning that we had where we started building tech stacks in that manner where based on geography, it becomes very easy to switch between languages while the core infrastructure remains the same,” he said.

 

On that note, he explained that service up time from a user perspective remains at the core of companies engaged in services such as gaming especially in places with low network bandwidth.

 

“Since disconnection is not something we can control, we ensure that the moment users are back online, their progress is saved. We can give them a few extra seconds to make a move like playing a card or moving a dice on the board,” he said, while explaining such tech interventions to drive retention.