Just a few years ago, few people had heard much about artificial intelligence (AI) outside of specialized industries. Today, it’s rare that a day passes when we don’t hear something new about AI. As social media companies like X rush to incorporate AI into their platforms and businesses use chatbots like Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT to increase productivity, almost everyone has experienced AI on some level. As has always been the case, the gaming industry is at the forefront of new technology, and AI is no different. Game developers are using AI to create better games that are more dynamic and immersive. That means the characters in the games we play are smarter, and gaming worlds can be generated on the fly, making each playthrough a unique experience. AI is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in gaming, and it’s just getting started. In this article, we look at the different ways AI is changing gaming.
Improving the Player Experience
Game studios know that the player experience is at the heart of gaming. Create a game the masses love, and they’ll come back to it over and over again. While many thought gaming had reached its pinnacle a few years ago, AI has proved them wrong. Not long ago, non-playable characters (NPC) followed rigid, predictable patterns and didn’t add much to a game. Today’s AI-powered NPCs learn from how you play the game, adapting their actions in real time to create a more lifelike experience.
Another example of AI at work can be found in the world of online casinos. With more and more people connecting to online platforms to spin the reels and play games like blackjack and roulette, iGaming companies have begun using AI to make sure these players have the best experience possible. Since everything is online, customer service is a big part of what they do. Online casinos use AI-powered chatbots to help customers in real time, around the clock. AI also helps these platforms customize the casino experience for players by analyzing their preferences and tailoring game recommendations accordingly.
Beyond NPCs and personalization in online casinos, AI can adjust the difficulty of a game based on a player’s performance and how they interact with the environment, which can go a long way toward preventing boredom and frustration.
Procedural Content Generation
If you’ve played games like No Man’s Sky or Minecraft, you’ve witnessed the power of procedural content generation (PCG) firsthand. PCG is one of the most exciting things to come out of AI and allows game environments, levels, and even quests to be created with an algorithm instead of manually. That means developers can create massive, dynamic worlds without having to create every detail by hand. No Man’s Sky uses PCG to create diverse planets and ecosystems. You can play this game as many times as you want, and no two playthroughs will be exactly the same. Games created with PCG have high replayability and are rarely predictable, so there’s always a surprise awaiting players, even if they’ve played it before. AI-driven PCG can do things like change weather patterns in a game or create evolving landscapes, all of which can make the virtual game world feel more alive.
AI in Multiplayer Games
Once upon a time, gaming was mostly a solo activity but not anymore. Online gaming has made it possible for thousands of people from all corners of the world to come together to play a game together, and AI is making it even better. We’ve already mentioned AI-powered NPCs, and in multiplayer online games, NPC bots are so good they can stand in for human players in online matches, making decisions in real time and mimicking human behavior. That means that gamers can get an authentic, multiplayer experience even if there aren’t any live players available. AI in these games learns from players and adjusts difficulty levels to ensure players are consistently challenged. While AI’s doing all of that, it’s also at work monitoring gameplay patents to identify and react to anything that seems suspicious, helping to keep the gaming environment secure.
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