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Losing the human touch? Artificial Intelligence is still in its early stages, but in gaming questions have already been raised as to whether the industry is losing its personal touch, and if technologies such as these can exacerbate problem gambling.
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udhir Kale, CEO of GamePlan Consultants and a marketing / loyalty expert cautions against betting too big on robotics, machines and artificial intelligence in our hospitality driven industry. “It is only a matter of time before we see robotic concierges (as seen in some hotels), robot dealers, and even AI-driven robot hosts,” said Kale. “But as we get increasingly sucked into the promises of big data, sentiment analysis, facial recognition systems, machine learning, and AI, we are facing a real paradox. Technology allows us to understand the customer like never before, but these insights are seldom used to relate to customers in human-to-human interaction.”
Asia Gaming Briefings | March 2020
Sudhir is an expert in casino loyalty programs. He said that these new technologies, which may save costs and improve efficiencies, lack a critical element for our industry: the “human touch”. “Automated loyalty kiosks are depriving casinos of that human touch that alone makes guests feel welcome and keeps them coming back.” In land-based gaming, advancements have been made pairing artificial intelligence with facial recognition systems - not only to identify and tag patrons - but to understand their risk profiles, and categorize patrons based on their propensity to ‘bet big’. This has raised concerns of whether Artificial Intelligence can exacerbate problem gambling.
