Learning By Doing: How AI and ML are improving gaming through data

It’s 2022 and to say the world is more connected than ever would be an understatement. Petabytes of data exchange happen via billions of devices across the world every day, and at its core, lies an algorithm capable of learning. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI & ML)—two sets of words that are commonplace today in the tech world. But what do they do? How do they benefit us? What lies ahead? The article will try and answer some of the questions.

AI & ML use algorithms to solve problems, perform calculations and help us understand things better. For example - understand user behaviour in a particular situation like what will you buy next on an e-commerce site or what’s the right way to help you play a game better by overcoming the skill challenge that you may be facing. In doing so, it cuts out the possibility of human error as it no longer needs human input. The algorithm can now learn from the mountains of data it sifts through and recognise patterns and extrapolating these patterns gives it predictions. These become the base for the algorithms to understand how the user thinks and behaves, what they require, what they’d prefer and what they’d rather avoid. This opens up a plethora of opportunities and use-cases. Facial and voice recognition, fraud mitigation, customer behaviour prediction, content personalisation—the possibilities are endless because the capacity to learn is endless too.

One such possibility is the use of AI & ML in the gaming industry, A multi-billion-dollar behemoth that relies on understanding user behaviour and patterns—the adoption of this technology was inevitable.

Gaming is no longer just a leisurely activity that kids and their friends engage in front of their TV on their old Sega. It’s become a form of entertainment where everyone from a casual to a professional gamer can participate at their own pace and feel equally satisfied. This is only possible by creating spaces or games that cater to a certain type of gamer. Real-money skill games like Poker, Rummy and Fantasy sports games have now become more accessible than ever and has resulted in a paradigm shift in how people game and how gaming is perceived as a whole. AI & ML further enables this by allowing the game developers to find the right gamers.

To find the right audience, you need to make sure that the game features are relevant and accessible. For example, Fantasy Cricket is gaining popularity and the best way to engage the users is by helping them ease in and understand the game mechanics. AI & ML can analyse a user’s patterns and suggest a team based on previous selections. In a game of Poker, you can check out the stats of your opponent and adjust your game play accordingly. When the game can offer insightful information on what to do next, it becomes more than just a leisurely activity and encourages the use of strategy in gameplay. This makes the whole game more intuitive and engaging and aids the player with more fulfilling gameplay.

The benefits don’t end there. These same usage patterns can then help the developer segment the players into different brackets. Whether it’s by region to facilitate better player availability at any time or by expertise to level-match players so that everyone can enjoy the game, AI & ML can help create better spaces for gamers all around.

Speaking of better spaces, we must also address the aspect of fraud mitigation. We’ve seen many attempts by people to game the system and reap the rewards unfairly. Incentives such as sign-up bonuses and referral credits are misused by ways of fake and proxy accounts. Implementing AI & ML can help weed out the problem by identifying the ones gaming the system. The goal is to ensure rewards continue to be available for right people as they are an important incentive for attracting new users and retaining existing users. Fraud detection in gaming has come a long way and AI & ML can truly make it a more welcoming space for newcomers.

The ability to bring in new players, understand their preferences, and mitigate risks all at once really underscores the capabilities of AI & ML. It has fast become a strong pillar for the future development of the gaming industry. There’s been a massive shift in the quality of gaming as a whole and AI & ML play no small part in it. Therefore, we must be prepared for quantum leaps in this technology that’s bound to arrive over the years.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is an immensely vital innovation to the gaming industry, and in a bigger context, how the world functions today. The future is only going to be more amazing because of these technological advances!

Atishay Kumar

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Atishay Kumar is the head of engineering at Baazi Games.