20 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 research company (50% owned by Microsoft) and launched in November of 2022. IWG’s Mike Lightman said that, like many of us, he went from having a casual interest in ChatGPT to wondering how it can be incorporated into different parts of his life. “I’ve used ChatGPT for everything from answering standard questions to creating an outline of an RFP for eInstants, getting very specific to lottery,” he said. “And I was amazed that it did a decent job while also missing a few of the nuances of the lottery industry. There are now tools being offered that will allow people in professional jobs to get a head start on many of our daily tasks. For example, press releases. There are programs where you can feed it past press releases and it will create a first draft of a new press release. Fireflies is a notetaking program that will produce a good summary of what was said in a meeting. As professionals, we might want to start interacting with these technologies, particularly given that many of our competitors will be using them. And business leaders will probably want to be comfortable with these technologies before asking their employees to utilize them in their daily tasks.” Keith Cash said that it is the data that will drive IGT’s use of AI — with the company’s Player Data Platform being the AI tool that allows customers to derive insights from that data. “While we certainly have a lot of data on all aspects of this industry, iLottery probably leads the way because the nature of the transaction is that it can be digitally captured and recorded,” he said. “Data from previously anonymous retail-player transactions, including purchases of physical scratch tickets, can also be captured via the company’s OMNIA solution, according to Keith. If we load this data into a system, we can find patterns of play that would likely have been missed if you relied on traditional tools of demographic segmentation, instead of looking at how players actually play games. On top of that, you add tools that allow everyone, even a non-technical person, to query that data and drill down to produce more granular, accurate, and usable game information. AI can certainly help us in three important areas – develop better products, improve consumer engagement, and create efficiencies. While it’s in the early stages, AI is already helping us and our customers in all three areas.” Drew then asked how lotteries and vendors are using AI today and ways we can use it in the future. Mark said that Intralot has been using some form of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for many years and its utility is increasing with every new technological breakthrough. “Whether you’re in advertising, sales, procurement, tech support, AI is there as a ‘secondary colleague’ or co-pilot to help support you in your mission,” he said. “With the proper use, something like ChatGPT can help you start your project a third or more way through, instead of starting from scratch. This increases productivity and allows employees to focus on the most important tasks. AI won’t necessarily replace employees, it will make us all more efficient and allow us to concentrate on initiatives that are best for our customers and our employer.” Jacob said that while many have been using AI for a few years (and perhaps didn’t know it), deploying it to influence decisions materially has taken a bit longer. “Microsoft Word has been predicting the rest of our sentences for a while and it’s getting better at doing it,” he said. “But using AI to create a marketing plan or improve supply logistics is still a work in progress. It is being applied in ways that may appear to be slow, but it will seem to be sudden when we look back and realize how much has changed, and how much is being affected by AI. For the foreseeable future, AI will work in the background. But when the pivot happens and it becomes a part of everyday lives, AI will be at the forefront of how we interact with customers and how players interact with our products.” Drew turned the conversation to the negatives associated with AI. “There are many people who fear losing their jobs to AI, and who can blame them when we see headlines about machines replacing people,” he said. “It seems as though it is the responsibility of leaders to prepare the workforce for what is coming. Once we prepare our workforce, we can better explain the future of AI and its impact on lottery to our customers.” Mike said we should all be working with our workforces to lean into the new technology. “We need to encourage people to be inquisitive, learn, stay up to date,” he said. “You also want them to be a bit cautious, not just download free software because it’s free. Allowing your employees to try the different tools available to them will only help them become more comfortable with AI. If you’re writing a document for the first time, give one of the tools a try. You can see firsthand what it does well, or not well, and where it needs improvement. It can only help your own development and the development of your business.” The issue of impact on workforces is an emotional one and it must be dealt with carefully, according to Jacob. “We’ve all been through moments when the way work has been done for many years has been challenged and causes concerns amongst employees,” he said. “Email conversations slowly replaced telephone calls, and then people who texted their whole lives were forced to use email. Not easy changes. Now younger employees come in who are already familiar with the new technology and can navigate between the legacy and modern systems. Smoothing these transitions is all about preparing your employees and getting people to think about AI as something they can actually use in their day-to-day lives. This technology is new, it’s emerging, and it’s fantastic. As long as you can get people to be inquisitive and understand that this technology is a ‘helper technology’ and not a replacement, not a substitute technology, the transition will be much smoother.” Mark added, “If you can show your employees that a 30-minute exercise can become a 5-minute exercise, they will understand that they now have 25 minutes to do something else. Small wins are important. We can let people know that things are going to be done differently through incremental changes. Show them how and why new technology is better for them, how it improves the business and produces more value for the customers.” Drew steered the conversation to the less technical things humans have historically done in the workplace. “We need to look at specialties like marketing, research, proposal writing and responses, customer service, and how AI is impacting these types of positions that don’t necessarily involve technology,” he said. “Perhaps AI can help with all these things and more, but someone is always going to have to check the work before it is released or published. Isn’t that what ensures humans are going to continue to have a role in most decisions?” Jacob said this point is exactly why AI will always have limitations. “There are things that I believe AI will never replace and that includes customer service,” he said. “Consider a lottery’s interaction with its retailers, how retailer portals are used to recruit them and help them with their goals. AI can help personalize the initial interactions and fact-finding and serve as a
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