Artificial intelligence (AI) – or AI for short – is expected to have a huge impact on a wide range of industries in the coming years.

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The iGaming sector is certainly among them, with companies looking into ways that AI can help them to improve the quality of their offering and run their operations more efficiently.

However, it might be the case that there are some disadvantages to embracing AI in the iGaming industry, as well as the various undoubted advantages that are up for grabs.

In what ways is the iGaming sector likely to change as a result of the arrival of AI?

AI to become vital for customer support changes

It seems certain that customer support is going to be one of the main departments where iGaming companies rely on AI to overhaul their operations in the near future.

Indeed, some experts believe that around 85 per cent of customer support interactions could be handled by introducing new AI, which could result in major cost savings across the industry.

The speed that a company can respond to a customer’s complaint or question is going to remain one of the key performance indicators for the sector, regardless of AI, however.

Customer service is one of the most important things users are thinking about when they pick an online casino site, so it is not going to be possible to cut too many corners in this area.

However, it is worth pointing out that most customer service operations in the iGaming sector are quite advanced already, even without the arrival of AI. At a typical online operator, players are likely to find a range of customer service options, including a detailed FAQ and a live chat.

Utilizing AI to handle the most basic queries should be a relatively easy undertaking.

Challenges the iGaming world faces with introducing AI

Online casinos like an award winning 2020 slots site are likely to find that there are some slight hurdles to overcome in terms of introducing AI, even in their customer service departments.

One of these is expected to be judging which inquiries from customers can be dealt with by an AI support bot and which will need input from a human customer service agent. AI will have to be able to tell which questions it can handle and which will require more of a personal touch.

Ensuring AI bots are able to handle various different languages will also be a key challenge. Most iGaming companies now operate in a variety of languages, which can make it expensive to employ enough customer support staff to cover all of the relevant bases. 

Is virtual reality coming to the iGaming industry?

One of the rising trends expected to play a big part in the future of the iGaming industry is virtual reality, which is usually just referred to as VR.

While VR is not exactly brand new technology – it has been available for a few decades – vast improvements have been made in this area over the course of the past decade.

VR gaming is now a reality and it is expected to break through in the world of iGaming soon too. It is easy to imagine how VR headsets, such as those made by Oculus could be used to make playing at online casinos more realistic than ever before.

Poker rooms in particular seem ideally suited for VR. If all players were wearing headsets it could feel just like being at a real-life poker table, allowing gamblers to read each other better.

Facebook and YouTube are among the internet giants to be pushing hard for the adoption of VR, with Sony and Valve also holding a strong interest in the development of the technology. VR has been slow to grasp the attention of the wider general public, though, and this will have to change.

How AI could be used to identify problem gamblers at online casinos

Online casinos have been struggling to get to grips with the issue of problem gamblers of late. Indeed, the UK Gambling Commission recently fined operator Caesars Entertainment £13 million, partly due to a series of failings in this area.

AI could help iGaming companies to make a lot of progress in this area. At the present time, problem gamblers are not flagged by quickly enough by casino operators. AI, though, could be used to identify worrying trends in the betting patterns by certain high-risk users. 

One of the issues for online casino operators is that a proportion of their revenues is actually dependent on problem gamblers continuing to spend money on games such as blackjack. 

The UKGC ruling on Caesars, however, could focus minds across the industry about what needs to be done, with AI potentially offering a route forward in this difficult department.