A graduate of Michigan, Wilcox wrote the MTS/LISP interpreter (the LISP system used at the University of Michigan and a consortium of other places including UPenn and Brown) back in the early 1970s,[1] in order to be able to write a Go program for Dr. Walter Reitman.

He consulted for Fujitsu Labs (2003–2007) in a number of areas including motion sensing.

Wilcox worked as a core engineer at Telltale Games from 2010 to 2012, working on games such as Poker Night at the Inventory, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Hector: Badge of Carnage, and Walking Dead.

In June 2012, Outfit7 released a popular ChatScript app called "Tom Loves Angela", scripted primarily by Bruce and his wife Sue.

He and his wife Sue founded the natural language company Brillig Understanding[16] in 2012.