COB professor finds link between AI for business and gaming

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic in just about every industry and in many daily conversations. While AI has permeated our lives, it might be surprising to know that its beginning is tied to gaming – nearly 75 years ago. This history is played out in “The Games AIs Play” – a literature review recently published in the Journal of Applied Business and Economics by Dr. Tom Robbins, associate professor in the Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management.

“I am extremely interested in AI and how it will impact business,” Robbins said. “As I began to study AI and learn its history, key developments kept showing up in the world of games.”

This research is also tied to his teaching. Robbins discusses the role of games in AI in his IMBA class as well as his Honors College seminar on AI. Robbins points to how computers – or AI – have famously faced off with human experts in games like chess, Go, Jeopardy and poker. He said the more he looked into AI games, there wasn’t much that aligned with business literature. Robbins said most of the historical information was in books and magazines, and in non-peer-reviewed articles on the free, open-access archive ArXiv.

“It seemed to me that a proper academic literature review could fill in the missing pieces,” Robbins said.

So he conducted one. Robbins reviewed AI’s history and its development within gaming. He looked at the major contributions from 1950 to 2024 – its evolution from a rules-based expert system to learning-based.

“One key implication is that many ideas now appearing in business AI applications – such as strategic decision-making, learning through interaction, and human-AI collaboration – were first developed and refined in games,” Robbins said. “Understanding this history helps clarify both the strengths and limitations of modern AI systems, and why certain approaches work well in some environments but not others.”

Robbins said his literature review is for a wide AI audience; however, his goal is for this information to be readily accessible to business faculty and students who aren’t familiar with technical AI literature. He said this literature review provides historical context that helps demystify modern AI systems and puts current developments into perspective.

“The research is most relevant for business professionals, analysts, managers and educators who are trying to understand how AI systems actually work beneath the surface — beyond current buzzwords or specific tools,” Robbins said. “It can also be useful for organizations thinking strategically about AI adoption, automation and decision support systems.”

Robbins concludes that the AI in strategy games dealing with uncertainty can be used in supply chain management. He believes other theoretical decision-making gaming AI, like for poker, can be used for trading. Other AI gaming aspects can be used for e-commerce, Robbins reported.

“Games have played a critical role in the development of AI since its very inception,” Robbins said. “Games continue to matter in AI research.”