Adapting to AI: Essential Skills for iGaming Professionals | Ep.778

Charlie Horner (00:01.376) AI. We all know it. Some of us love it. But we're all impacted by it. Now and in the future, the workplace is being revolutionized by the rise of AI. So as technology accelerates and organizations restructure, which skills are becoming essential? Which roles are emerging? And which are disappearing altogether? And how can we as iGaming professionals actively upskill to stay relevant and employable? Welcome back to iGaming Daily, by Optimove, the creator of positionless marketing and the number one player engagement solution for sports betting and iGaming operators. I'm Charlie Horner and today to help me answer all these questions and more is Caroline Butler, head of global markets at Initiate International. Caroline, thanks so much for joining us. How are you doing today? Caroline (00:51.49) Thanks, Charlie. Really great to have this conversation. I'm doing really well. Nice and warm. So summer's on its way. And I think this is a topic that everyone is talking about right now in different areas of the business. So it's really good to have this chat. Charlie Horner (01:05.71) Certainly it's something that is capturing all of our minds as we try to get to grips with this new technology and try to make sure that we're all still employed at the end of it. some of your expertise and insights will be greatly appreciated. I guess just to get the ball rolling then, Caroline, could you just introduce yourself and some of the work that you do in the space? Caroline (01:28.068) Absolutely. I am, so I've been doing recruitment now for 17 years, 10 years this year in iGaming. I've done agency as well as heading up TA in-house for US gambling company as well for a number of years. So I've done high growth, high speed, as well as more considered one-on-one kind of hiring and head counts and... I've helped with organization restructure. I've helped with some elements of HR process as well. Putting all functions in place, including using ATSs and AI functionality within those ATSs as well. So it's a global, global understanding from different countries across the world. And I'm, I work more to look, look after the business, but look after the people as well. to make sure that everyone is aligned and help people with their career path from day dot basically. Charlie Horner (02:28.545) Fantastic, so well equipped to help us answer some of these questions today for sure. Yeah. So I think it's important that we don't make this too existential and sort of give everyone sort of end of days sort of vibes. But I think it's important to outline some of the challenges and some of the threats that the AI is posing to the workplace as well as some of the benefits that it has as well. So. Caroline (02:32.876) I hope so. I hope so. Charlie Horner (02:57.311) First of all, big of a threat is AI to the present and future workforces, and guess which functions within businesses do you see as most at risk, if you like? Caroline (03:08.964) I think it's quite unnerving to use the word threat or risk. It creates part of the panic that's going on right now. And I think we need to reevaluate how we're seeing it. Roles that seem to be affected more profoundly are execution only roles. So roles that AI can take the admin off and take the data input off. if that is a role, Charlie Horner (03:12.939) Mm-hmm, sure. Charlie Horner (03:19.821) Mm-hmm. Caroline (03:37.861) Essentially, it's you need to upskill in a different way in order to keep the role itself. I mean, some people are, you know, are happy and content and very good at those jobs as well. But there are ways to work with AI. AI is not taking your job. You need to evaluate how you are approaching this. It's the same as when computers came in and then Google came in and then the internet came in. There's always an upskilling that needs to happen in order to keep your career on the right path. It's just the evolution of the workspace now, including AI. AI is your friend, as far as I'm concerned. It's not taking your job. I'm very cautious to calm down the panic that's happening right now. But it's not just with employees, it's employers as well. It's a whole phenomenon right now. Those are conversations that I'm having constantly with people. We need to kind of look a bit more and how we approach the positions and how we approach how we're hiring people using AI, but not letting AI take over because it can't, you know. Charlie Horner (04:49.006) Yes, it's an adaptation process rather than an extinction event we're going through. I guess every single technological innovation comes with the same process. You mentioned the rise of the internet and Google, et cetera. You could probably take it all the way back to the Industrial Revolution and people would still be having similar conversations. So let's look at... Caroline (04:52.064) Yeah. Caroline (05:04.9) So. Charlie Horner (05:10.678) where those skills are that people might need to adapt. You focused up there on sort of execution only roles. Which skills do you think are becoming those that professionals need to adapt from in the modern eye gaming workforce? Caroline (05:26.98) I think it's taking it one step further and making it more human led. Ironically, AI is in place, but we need the skills that I'm seeing are more necessary are human led. So it's evaluation, it's analysis, it's taking, you know, looking at it in a different way, a different approach. For example, I had a, I read a quote a few weeks ago and I can't remember who wrote it, but. They said AI can write you an amazing email to someone. Perfect. Send it across. But AI can't help you manage the conversation with the very irate stakeholder at the end of that email when they receive it. So we need to bear in mind that AI can do certain functions, but we need to have the human element of approaching it, how to look at context, look at analyzing things. So for example, data entry. If you want to keep with a data entry role, we need to look at, it just execution? Is it just that data? Or are you able to analyze it, look at it, interpret it, and apply that to other departments in the company as well? So there's more cross-functional work that needs to be done. Not just this is my bit and then move on to someone else. It needs to be more collaborative working. And this is what I'm hearing from companies as well as employees. Charlie Horner (06:53.997) Yes, certainly I think that upskilling in terms of being a little bit more analytical, coming at things with a bit more of critical eye can just be beneficial regardless of what your specific job role is at any one time. I think that's something that think a lot of people could take away. One thing I'm kind of eager to explore is the rapid shift that we've seen in the last five or six years really and that sort of... Caroline (07:06.712) Mm. Charlie Horner (07:21.897) AI coming in and just changing everything. And I like to look at this through the lens of maybe people who have just graduated or recently graduated, who might have spent a long time learning skills such as computer coding and things like that, which AI can now do. Have you seen a big shift in the last few years with younger people who are sort of having to maybe adapt to the skills that they've spent so many years learning? Caroline (07:52.229) Yeah, I think this is not just applicable to younger people, it's people across different generations and this is a topic that's quite prevalent as well. Just because you studied something doesn't mean that that's going to be your career for the rest of your life. You have to adapt with the times. I think what I'm noticing is companies are moving at a much faster pace than the employees are allowed to catch up with as well. So that's something that's part of the conversation. Developers, for example, yes, there are AI elements. But again, are you able to evaluate the code, for example? Are you able to look at how it functions, if it's back in how it functions with front end or the hardware or architecture. It's, it's stepping up another level. You know what you're doing. You know what the code is, you know how to code, but you need to teach AI to code it properly. And there is a risk here that I've seen. Again, a couple of other clients recently I've spoken to where AI is doing everything, but then if you double check it, it's not done. in the right way. So it needs to be foolproofed. You can foolproof your career by foolproofing AI. It's great to get rid of the monotonous and for HR teams and recruitment teams, that's amazing for, know, but it still needs to be monitored and guided by a human. I keep bringing back into this. Yes, people have studied and really worked hard for things, not just the younger generation, but other generations as well. But that was never always going to be your career. % right. Just exactly what you studied is not going to be exactly what your career is. It never has been. You have to be able to evolve and adapt and hopefully bridge the gap between how fast companies are growing and changing and pacing to let the employees catch up as well. That's something that I've noticed as well. Charlie Horner (09:55.406) So that's the shift for individuals, if you like. But how have organizational structures changed as well? I'd imagine that we've seen the way that companies organize themselves has changed with AI. Are we seeing flatter hierarchies, for example, or the emergence of new job roles and new functions? How has the organizational structure of the industry changed? Caroline (10:20.26) We've talked about this previously a couple of weeks ago and it's there are merging departments. emerging roles that are AI focused like CRM for example is heavily affected by this as one area of the business. But you do have a lot of roles that are merging into one. So before you have a person doing one area of the business and then someone else doing it. there are aligning a lot more and the roles are turning into two for one, if that makes sense, which doesn't make it a flatter hierarchy or structure. It just means that you have, again, a cross-functional understanding of the organization. So if you're able to adapt and grow into that role, then you have a better overlooked knowledge of what's going on. I haven't seen a huge change in the full company structure. So it's still very much traditional, but there are elements of... decisions being made where AI is very heavily focused, but then not, there's no real full understanding sometimes of what the AI is implementing, you know, and it's difficult to, I haven't seen a huge, huge change yet. I know it's coming, but until everyone catches up with what's going on, then it's gonna be difficult to kind of see it. I can see it happening in the next year or 18 months, but we'll see a real redefining of businesses. However, what I also have noticed is, dare I say, complacency using AI. So I suppose the change I've seen is when we're changes in businesses or merging or making redundancies for whatever reason. Caroline (12:21.336) there is a tendency to say, AI can do that now. That's not a problem. And I have seen that a few times, but without that human led interaction and without a human actually focusing on it, I can see there are going to be issues coming up in the next 18 months where someone mentioned to me the other day of what would happen if AI just disappeared or stopped working or went rogue, for example, because there's so many variations of it like It's insane of how much responsibility we're giving it within business. And I'm just, I'm talking obviously from a recruitment HR perspective. there's, there's a reliance on it that potentially, Is, is not going to help. So in actual fact, hiring teams I've noticed the process is slowing down because AI has just given the full power of evaluation. CV goes into, to an ATS, AI will. sort it out and say, no, these guys are great. Those guys aren't based on their CV and how it matches. But if they're not being monitored, I've, for example, I'm going off on a tangent here, an ATS that I've used previously, I had applications come in and it scores it in bearing in mind what the CV is and what the job description is. matches it and says, well, this is 100 % this person is or 80 % or 60%. according to the job description, they'll be perfect. None of the candidates were. Then I flipped it, so the least fitting to, you know, the best, the ones who had 20%, 30 % or 0 % were good matches to the job description because I also understood what the client is looking for from a personality perspective and a culture perspective. So they're the ones that were interviewed and those are the ones that went forward. But... If you are able to manage it and monitor the AI, then that probably wouldn't happen as readily. So I now keep a very close eye on what the ATS system and the AI functionality is doing because we are missing people. And I think this is where some of the panic is coming that there are so many people applying in for jobs and they're not hearing anything. And everything's being remotely run by an AI or an AI bot. Caroline (14:45.82) and it's because they're lost in the ether of what AI says is right. Again, bringing it back to you need the humans in place to do that. Sorry if that was a bit of a tangent. Charlie Horner (14:56.268) It's a great example to show why that human intervention is needed and that analytical eye and also that companies do still need character and personality as well. So we'll take a quick break there, Caroline, and we'll come back and we'll continue the discussion. Caroline (15:13.828) you Thank you. Charlie Horner (15:19.316) Welcome back to iGaming Daily, I'm joined by Caroline Butler, Head of Global Markets at Initiate International. Caroline, we spent the first half of the show outlining some of the adaptations that the industry is going through from both an individual and an organisational level. Let's talk about how we can adapt and some of the skills that people do need to sort of pick up as they advance through their careers. And we spent a lot of the first half of the show talking about those human skills and the analytical side of things, are there any of the skills that are increasingly more important in that AI age? Caroline (15:57.805) I think what I've helped people with and discussed with people previously is you need to speak up about what you can do in the business. So unfortunately, I've been through it as well before. It's like companies are not going to recognize your growth in the business and your worth in the business through telepathy. You need to like you need to speak out. And I know some people are little shy than I will talk. for anyone who will listen, but you need to be able to noting this is what I've done, this is what I can do. And there's a little formula that you can do. So rather than saying, I did this, I created 10 campaigns, for example, you can say, I grew this area of the business, I created this amount of revenue by doing this. throughout a certain period of time. So it's such an awful analogy right now, but it's, it's, it's, you have to be more descriptive of what you're doing within the business in order to faith proof your position with the business. But then also it will in your mind make you realize what I can do this and I want to get to this stage. I want to go to this position. Where am I gaps? Really be honest with yourself as well. Again, it's the human. element of it is it can't be done for you. So if you're looking for a more senior position or if you're looking for a head-off or you're looking for a completely different vertical or you you have to look at who's doing that job now and really assess your own position and what you're able to do and then close the gaps for yourself. and talk to people about this as well and just see what you can do. And I'm not saying do it all overnight, but just bit by bit, hour a day, that's all it takes or two hours at the weekend or whatever your time can, you can manage it because if you've got a family or pets or children or you know, it's, you have busy lives. But if you do need to, Caroline (18:15.072) change your thought process and you want to go for that job and you really do need to do it, you have to take ownership of it. And I know that sounds really serious, but it's, we all need to take ownership of what we're doing in order to move it forward. No one is going to do it for us. Charlie Horner (18:32.204) Sure, yeah absolutely. I think, you know, iGaming as an industry is quite tech savvy. You know, there's a lot of tech savvy people in here, quite a lot of intelligent people in the industry who understand the technology and that side of the navigating professional life. It seems to me as though in this new era... transferable and so-called softer skills are becoming far more important and that's where people need to be perhaps spending more time developing. They have the tech side and now it's a case of using those transferable skills. Is that something that you would agree with as well? Caroline (19:13.732) 100%. We are all humans. We need to be more human. AI can do all the day to day and take a lot of the time spent doing those more mundane tasks, I suppose, but we are humans. We need to interact. We need to communicate. We need to work with AI tech in order to really facilitate our best capabilities, really. Charlie Horner (19:42.957) And that's the sort of, I guess, the employees' view of things. And I guess, unfortunately, in this sector, there may be shifts in the job market, and some people may lose their jobs as part of this shift. But do you think maybe as part of that, we could see a new era of entrepreneurship and people looking to set up... on their own as this job market evolves? Is that something that you're seeing as you observe the market as well? Caroline (20:21.08) Yeah, I think that is the case. I think there are some people who, when they've been in a position for a long time and they leave it, very sadly, either made redundant or for other reasons, and they look and they think, wow, okay, actually, I want to do this. This is where I feel really passionate. I want to move forward with this. And again, it's the self-evaluation and really taking ownership of what you want to do. And then... if you're fortunate enough to move forward and really start your own thing, then yeah, I can see that the trend is starting to happen, definitely. And I'm behind that 100%. I think, you know, if you're gonna be happy in what you're doing, make sure it's exactly what you're passionate about as well. Charlie Horner (21:09.204) Sure, and guess we're an industry that is obsessed with innovation, and that's a term that's banded around quite a lot. I guess you need a lot of entrepreneurship to make that happen as well, so I guess it can only be a good thing in the long term for the sector. Brilliant. Well, as we start to wrap things up in Caroline, I guess what would be your number one top tip for an iGaming professional? Maybe look into... Or maybe... Caroline (21:22.574) Yeah, I think so, Charlie Horner (21:38.177) people in senior management as well who are looking to navigate this AI world and looking to see how the sector's going to shift in the next three to five years as we all ingratiate AI more into our companies, as it sort of weaves its way into our working lives even more. What would you advise people to be doing? Caroline (22:00.718) Don't panic. That sounds flippant, of course, because everyone is talking about it regardless of what department, what level, what everyone's talking AI. It's the real buzz at the minute. But please don't panic. There are ways around it. But again, like I said, really look at what you're doing and self-evaluate and then reach out to someone who might be able to help. For example, myself and my colleagues initiate that we're always happy to have a conversation. It doesn't mean we're going to get anything out of it, but it's developing those relationships to talk you through it, regardless of your level or where you want to move. instead of saying AI is running the world or taking over, we need to take ownership and control back of the process and what's going on. we can only do that ourselves. It's not perfect. I'm not saying this is the resolution and we'll be saved. It's just, we can't just say, well, that's it, we're done. We can't be defeatists with it. Because like, as I mentioned in the beginning, the same sort of thing happened from what I understand of when the internet came in or even when typewriters came in or... If we want to go really back, I mean, I'm not that old, but if we go back even further when the telephone or the mobile came in, or it, so there's always been change in innovation over the years. This is just a faster paced innovation. But I would also say that we can't, we can't be reliant on, on it as companies can't be reliant on AR. So if we're seeing, yeah, if we're seeing that, you know, hiring processes are slowing down. Charlie Horner (23:45.28) Yeah, absolutely. Caroline (23:50.728) because we're missing the human-led piece and that's so we you know humans need to take back control of AI and the processes. Charlie Horner (24:01.832) I think it's reassuring words to hear that humans still have a place in this increasingly modern and AI-driven world. Caroline, it's really great to have you on the show and thank you for sharing all of your expertise and experience with us today. We really appreciate your time. Thank you to Optimoo for supporting the show as always and to our audience. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of iGaming Daily and tune in again tomorrow to keep up to date with all the latest global gambling news. Caroline (24:06.698) Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.