The Global Gaming Expo is underway at the Venetian Expo Center, bringing manufacturers and developers together to showcase the latest gaming technology—including a growing, but still evolving, role for artificial intelligence in casinos and hospitality. (KSNV)
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) —The Global Gaming Expo is underway at the Venetian Expo Center, bringing manufacturers and developers together to showcase the latest gaming technology—including a growing, but still evolving, role for artificial intelligence in casinos and hospitality.
The annual convention, known as G2E, is a chance to preview new games expected to reach casino floors, while also gauging how widely AI is being adopted across the industry.
Some attendees said they are already comfortable with the technology. Susie De Los Santos said, “I love it.” She added, “I feel like a lot of slot machines already have AI integrated into the technology because these machines have a mind of their own.”
Others expressed more caution. Joe Mignano said AI “definitely raises a little concern,” adding he was “just a little” skeptical. Still, he said he had seen “some stuff here that looked very interesting – money recognition – cash recognition,” and that “some of those things definitely did seem beneficial.”
Vendors at the expo showcased AI products aimed at both customer service and gaming operations. Rodney Liebfried, who owns Sales Dragon AI, said his company’s technology is designed to help casinos “answer the phone better.” Liebfried said, “What it does is it allows the staff to focus on the guests that’s actually in the building spending money right now.”
On the game-development side, Matthew Primmer, chief product officer of Las Vegas-based Aristocrat Gaming, said AI is becoming central in a competitive market. “Making great games is what we’ve always done, but making enduring franchises is the real focus now. I guess the most topical way is AI,” Primmer said. He added, “We believe it makes our creative geniuses even more valuable. We know that we can help augment their creative juices with the way we can test more quickly.” Primmer also pointed to the push to deliver games across platforms and markets, saying, “Getting games across markets, helping them get into their different online channels, is also important. So AI has been really helpful for velocity.”
Andrew Burke, CEO of Las Vegas-based Bluberi, said the industry is still figuring out how best to use AI in slot-machine development. “The average player sits down, and maybe they want to win a ton of money, but they really just want to have a good time,” Burke said. He added, “We’re still on the front end of it, but it’s been a really helpful tool to us to engage, and we’re a small company, so for us, it’s not about, ‘ Hey, can you replace people with AI, which I think is scary for a lot of folks. For us, it’s about enabling our great folks to do better work.”
Despite the attention AI is getting, Alan Feldman with UNLV’s Global Gaming Institute said adoption across gaming has been slower than many might assume. “We do a state of AI report now at UNLV, and it studies how operators are implementing AI into their business, and they’re doing so very slowly, carefully. They’re trying to understand its value,” Feldman said.
G2E is one of the year’s largest conventions in Las Vegas. About 25,000 people attended last year. Final attendance numbers for this year are expected Thursday, when the expo wraps up.
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