In conversations with friends and acquaintances, has the topic of AI ever elicited an “it’s scary” response? It is a feeling expressed with ever-increasing frequency given the technological phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence is holding the world spellbound because the multitudes quite simply do not understand it or its impact.
Humanity has evolved into a generation of “shoulder-shruggers,” a condition brought on by rampant social media addiction and mere bullet point awareness of history and current events, leaving many vulnerable to AI’s beguiling ways.
Thus far, AI’s encroachment upon genuine human intelligence has been harmless, beneficial in many ways, in that it expedites certain intellectual activities. AI writes for us, composes for us, and conducts research for us…if you let it. It summarizes our electronic communications and even has a creative influence upon our electronic messaging. MSN has begun using AI-driven curation of news in place of human bylines.
The encroachment of AI into our everyday lives came as softly as summer rain, then quickly erupted into a full-blown thunderstorm. Before we knew what had happened, AI was upon us and not going away.
The multitude of AI applications in the casino gaming industry is well known. The danger lurking around the corner for many is if it is going to render certain positions of employment obsolete.
AI is already the dominant decision-making tool in brick-and-mortar properties in the context of personalization of marketing campaigns. Specifically, this includes identifying individual players and customizing offers specific to their profiles. It can reinforce brand loyalty by giving casino hosts tangible strategies that were never before possible.
It can process information in the physical space in real time, arming casino operators with the power to create lighting, music, promotions, and even offerings on the casino floor, both in the table game segment and the slot floor, to drive revenue. AI-driven camera analytics even capture player behaviors.
The question now becomes: When is AI going to get physical? That is, play a role in the live environment far away from the marketing and revenue components of operations.
TableTrac has already blazed the trail with its proprietary AI-driven Table Games Manager/Manager Trainer. The efficiency it brings to table games operations is more than significant. It takes this vertical into the modern world by reducing human intervention and paving the way for supervisory personnel to reposition their talents and expertise.
“The time-consuming process required of opening up a table can be accomplished by AI with a simple command which will result in executing the function in the system” explained Chad B. Hoehne, CTO and President of CasinoTrac. “We have observed the table games market, particularly in larger operations, having more tables and fewer supervisors.
“TableTrac’s AI-driven Table Games Manager increases productivity with a force multiplier to permit a pit boss to have a visual representation of the casino floor with multiple table games pits and being able to direct the functions on those tables using voice commands.”
“Back in the day you would have one supervisor for every six tables. That soon increased to 12 tables. This makes it impossible to provide the quality of service to customers that is required in today’s market. AI will augment the casino’s ability to operate the pit as well as provide a higher level of customer service.”
“For example, if a pit boss wants to open a table in a pit, they are going to have a supervisor and a dealer go over there,” Hoehne explained. “They are going to make sure that the rack count is all right. On the computer, they are going select open table and put in their inventory, then swipe their badges or input their employee numbers to have the system produce the table open function which opens the table for operation.”
“They can then start putting players on the table and tracking the other important pieces of information that table games managers are going to be tracking. Now the AI can do that same thing all by itself with a simple command from the operator or from the pit boss, taking that instruction and executing the function on the system.”
The inaugural report, The State of AI in Gaming 2026 (How AI is Shaping the Global Gaming Industry) by the UNLV International Gaming Institute and KPMG LLP released earlier this year, provides revealing insight into where the casino industry is headed with AI applications.
Kasra Ghaharian, PhD Director of Research, UNLV International Gaming Institute Principal Investigator and Editor-In-Chief of the report, observes: “In just a few years, Artificial Intelligence has shifted from an emerging novelty to operational necessity, powering everything from personalization and game development to compliance and surveillance.”
The report states “the (gaming) industry has ambitions but remains in the early stages of maturity…. most gambling companies have strategic ambitions for AI, but infrastructure and expertise need to catch up to scale it…Generative AI is widespread but Agentic AI has yet to arrive.”
Andrew Cardno, Chief Technology Officer of Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI), is seeing significant advances in AI, saying, “AI models are now functioning like extremely capable agentic agents, or intelligent ‘creatures’ if you will. It is a little scary.”
“We have three fully agentic development teams working on new products,” he continued. “Teams that are not comprised of people rather AI. The acceleration of technology that is coming out of AI is remarkable. We are looking at productivity levels inside of QCI that have increased close to ten-fold. In another year or two it should be 50 to 100.”
“It is absolutely amazing to think we have reached two orders of magnitude greater than what could have been done a year ago,” Cardno said. “After decades of software engineering, I can appreciate the enormity of the change we are looking at.”
“The State of AI in Gaming 2026” documents: Over 80% of companies use Generative AI, yet adoption of AI agents lags far behind broader enterprise trends. The sensitivity of gambling operations, from compliance to player safety, warrants a measured approach. Regulators and industry are not on the same page. Regulators and operators disagree on where AI is being used, regulators lack confidence in their oversight capabilities, and they do not believe the industry is capable of self-regulating its use of AI.
The report acknowledges that: “The innovation pipeline is accelerating. Academic research publications, patent filings, product development, conference discourses, are all growing, signaling that the ecosystem around AI in gambling is building momentum, even as adoption within companies remains uneven.”
Artificial Intelligence is a part of our lives even as genuine human intelligence fights to preserve its relevancy while learning to dance with a most unlikely partner.
