ASTONISHING! Useful FAQs about AI Technology in Online Gaming

The future is here and it’s impacting online gaming more than you’d imagine.

Fifty years ago, the advent of online casinos wasn’t even a dream. A few decades later and we’ve achieved more than we ever thought possible.

So flows the progress of humanity: technology comes and goes but continually advances in the process. Online gaming and casinos are no different. While AI has been an integral part of video game programming since the 1950s, technology has changed and evolved. AI is already making its way into online poker and winning in the process. But should you be concerned? Can human ingenuity and instinct beat the sheer odds in games of strategy? How does AI impact the player experience in an online casino? We’ve compiled some of the most Frequently Asked Questions about this ever-growing technology. 

• What is AI?

AI stands for artificial intelligence—but you knew that already. At its most basic definition, Artificial Intelligence is technology used by developers to mimic human-like intelligence. This includes the ability to learn, react, and adapt to change. This is especially relevant to online gaming in terms of NPCs, security, and general satisfaction. Player experience is highly impacted by artificial intelligence and it’s only getting better. Artificial intelligence allows personalization that would never be possible with purely human staff. As a result, online casinos outperform brick-and-mortar casinos every time. It’s not just a matter of convenience: AI allows for unheard of data security and fraud detection. AI sophistication has exploded in the past ten years. It’s hard to even create a benchmark to predict where we’ll be in the next decade. In any case, we’re certainly excited to find out.

• What is an NPC?

An NPC is a Non-Playable Character. This character can only be controlled by the referee, programmer, or game master, rather than a human player. They’re often specifically programmed to play at human-level intelligence, though sometimes they’re there specifically to add enjoyment and whimsy to a new game. It’s easy to conflate the terms AI and NPC. While they’re not exactly the same, they’ve certainly related: AI is the framework that allows an NPC to function. It’s easy to think of it this way: All NPCs run on AI, but not all AI is devoted to NPCs. The terms are parallel. AI is particularly relevant to NPCs in terms of movement: AIs allow NPCs to move in human-like ways, both in image representations and in terms of gameplay. Thanks to AI in online casinos, the human-NPC relationship has never been better.

• How does AI improve player security?

Some of the many advantages of AI over human monitoring are in the fraud detection and data security fields, from player protection to anti-money laundering measures. Because they have no bias and a ridiculously high accuracy rate, AI is the perfect tool to use when working with players in online casinos. AI also learns at above-human rates, making it possible to commit a mistake once and never again. AI can track transactions, identify suspicious activity, and flag an account for human intervention. This allows online casinos to spot anything out of the norm way before it becomes a real problem. In many cases, malicious activity is identified, reported, and resolved in real-time before players even notice. It’s not just in America either—with the help of AI player security, Playtech is bringing iGaming to Ontario.

• What impact does AI have on player experience?

One of the most pleasurable aspects of online gaming is the personalization. Players want a more tailored experience than your standard internet browser and AI delivers. Artificial Intelligence has the ability to collect player data, including their typical gambling frequency, the sites they prefer, and how much they generally bet. This assists the system in making relevant recommendations to players. AI is also useful in automating customer service responses: because the system has a range of collected data, it’s able to make more helpful responses to questions or concerns. The casino can also use the data they collect to improve the online experience as a whole. Artificial intelligence makes the entire experience a breeze, from sign up to game play to collecting your winnings.

• How does AI Make Online Casinos More Self-Sustainable?

The answer to this question goes back to our section on fraud: AI is simply the safest way on the market to protect players. In this case though, it’s not just protecting players from malicious hackers, it’s also protecting players from system malfunctions. Without AI, it’s expensive and it takes a lot of time to determine if a malfunction is because of an outside influence or an internal software issue. AI systems are able to continually and automatically scan the entire online casino system to make sure it’s all running smoothly. Operations management is also a factor in self-sustainability: Artificial Intelligence allows casinos to run more efficiently. For example, AI can analyze data and offer opportunities for revenue growth and cost reduction by tracking peak play times and recommending higher or lower staffing. AI helps casinos understand their customer base: resulting in more satisfying and effective gameplay.

As player interest continues to grow and online casinos grow more and more popular, the question isn’t whether we should be using artificial intelligence: the question is how many more uses we can find for the systems. Players are embracing the new sites and all the benefits they provide—and it’s all thanks to AI. How about you? How do you feel about the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence as part of the online casino framework? If nothing else, one thing’s for sure: we’re all playing with robots, whether we knew it or not.