By Japneet Singh Sethi
For any other sector, a US president signing an executive order (EO) to call for its regulation would be an industry-defining move. But not, it seems, for the AI space. In the week following the EO for “safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence,” we have seen the launch of India’s first AI-focused business incubator in Tamil Nadu and been given a glimpse of a world beyond phones with Humane’s AI Pin.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI’s momentum across sectors. The technology is projected to drive exponential growth in the global medical devices industry, taking its addressable market to $1.2 billion by 2027 from the current $336 million. Experts in the entertainment industry also expect AI to reduce costs associated with producing animated movies by up to 90%.
These developments should excite players in the high-potential, high-growth iGaming space – and for good reason.
AI in iGaming: Understanding the technology’s wider impact on the sector
While artificial intelligence is not a new concept in gaming, emergent AI technologies such as GenAI are now finding applications that are redefining how the ecosystem operates. This transformation is most visible in market segments and business metrics that have traditionally been the toughest to crack.
Take customer retention in iGaming, for instance. Industry reports estimate that average customer retention for social casino games drops to 12.6% within seven days of a new signup and to 5.4% within 30 days. While the hyper-competitive nature of the industry does play a role in poor user retention, other issues such as inadequate personalisation, poor customer service, and lack of transparency have a much greater say on customer churn.
The deployment of AI across critical functions is helping iGaming companies reverse the trend by addressing these CRM-related issues, allowing platforms to analyse user behaviour, preferences, and interactions to introduce unparalleled personalisation. This hyper-customisation manifests most apparently in the form of tailored game recommendations that heighten and maximise engagement. A user who regularly makes predictions on the outcomes of Serie A matches featuring Juventus, for instance, can be recommended other matches from Serie A, as well as matches from the Coppa Italia or even other leagues such as La Liga and the Championship.
This impact also extends to the campaigns and promotions rolled out by iGaming platforms, allowing them to deliver hyper-customised experiences at a scale hitherto unimaginable. AI algorithms analyse vast amounts of data to predict player behaviour, enabling platforms to undertake more finely calibrated and targeted marketing, recommendation, and retention efforts. Analysing the likelihood of player deposit and gaming patterns allows AI to create offers and design game recommendations that are most likely to incentivise individual users to continue engaging with the platform. Even promotional communication via push notifications, emails, and SMSes are customised for each individual in real-time to trigger their desire to play, at the times they are most likely to respond positively. AI also analyses social media and online platforms to gauge player sentiment. This information is critical to understanding how players perceive the platform, its games, and its services, and enables iGaming companies to respond promptly to both positive and negative feedback.
Moreover, AI even allows iGaming platforms to hyper-localise the content, language, and gaming experiences they deliver to their users. We saw this bear out during the recent Dussehra-Diwali period, when people hailing from Southeast Asian countries, such as India, were delivered targeted promotions in regional languages and a completely revamped in-platform aesthetic to reflect the most popular festive season in the region. At the same time, other Asian countries such as Japan and the Philippines, which tend to follow US cultural trends more closely, were delivered content and promotions designed around festivals such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. Such level of localisation based on the most prominent cultural triggers in different regions is much easier to deploy through AI, even for smaller companies with limited bandwidth, capital, or manpower.
Customer is King: Using AI to elevate customer service
But AI’s contributions to iGaming extend far beyond recommendations and platform aesthetics. Customer service in the iGaming industry is also evolving rapidly with AI integration. Chatbots, reconfigured with AI, are improving the scale, speed, and efficacy of customer support, providing instant responses to common queries, resolving technical issues, and offering personalised recommendations to users. They can even be used to personalise interactions based on the player’s history and preferences.
More importantly, automating the more routine queries through AI-based tools enables human customer support professionals to devote their time and energy to resolving more complex customer issues. Doing so not only streamlines the customer service process but also enhances the overall user satisfaction and retention.
In the world of online sports prediction, AI is also an invaluable ally in risk identification and management. AI algorithms can process a wealth of historical and real-time data to make more accurate predictions, enabling iGaming platforms to offer better and more precise odds to their users. The result is an improved user experience, attracting and retaining sports enthusiasts who appreciate the difference that technology delivers. AI is also extremely useful in optimising pricing strategies for different games and promotions based on factors such as player behaviour and demand, ensuring that iGaming companies can maximise revenues while offering competitive pricing options that are fairer for the end-user.
The use of AI also ensures that players adhere to responsible gambling practices by analysing user data and behaviour. Imagine an AI-powered chatbot stepping in at the end of a gaming session to inform a user that their current betting pattern or playtime exceeds their historical usage, thus providing a friendly reminder to maintain responsible gaming habits.
Safeguarding user experience with AI-based fraud detection, security, and pricing
Cybersecurity and fraud detection are other critical aspects that AI is supercharging. Once again, its ability to process massive data volumes in real-time augments the ability of human operators to evaluate user behaviour and transaction data to detect anomalous patterns. This includes identifying irregular login attempts, payments, transactions, or betting activities, as well as patterns associated with fraud. AI detects suspicious activity and raises alerts, which are then acted upon by human operators to safeguard users without disrupting their gaming experience. It also helps shore up the cybersecurity robustness of iGaming platforms by identifying current and future vulnerabilities, attempts to disrupt normal platform operations, or attacks aimed at gaining unauthorised access to user/platform data.
The iGaming industry is on the cusp of a major transformation driven by AI. At the end of the day, however, the technology is merely empowering and elevating all human stakeholders in the ecosystem – from key C-Suite executives, security experts, and marketers to the end-users. It is building on the sector’s historical success to make gaming experiences more engaging and personalised while empowering it to tackle critical issues with unprecedented efficiency, speed, and scale. iGaming companies should look at AI not as “artificial intelligence” but “augmented intelligence”, a development that drives their next phase of growth. In a fast-changing, dynamic business ecosystem, adapting to AI to complement human capabilities is “survival of the fittest” in its most basic form: evolve or go extinct.
The author is country manager, marketing and operations, Khelraja
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