Artificial intelligence is reshaping CRM across iGaming, but for Optimove’s SVP of Product and GM of Americas, Shai Frank, this change represents a massive leverage opportunity for marketers in the industry. 

Speaking on the iGaming Daily podcast at SBC Summit Americas, Frank outlined how Optimove’s vision of “positionless marketing” is built around removing the operational bottlenecks that slow teams down and why human judgment remains the one thing AI can’t replicate.

The Assembly Line Problem

Frank’s starting point is a familiar one for anyone who has worked inside a large marketing operation.

 “The time from idea to execution was very long because you had to wait for five or six different specialists to give their input. We can no longer afford that”, he said.

His argument is that the old model, where a single campaign required input from IT, analytics, creative, and compliance in sequence, is incompatible with the pace of modern iGaming. Positionless marketing, as Frank describes it, is about collapsing that assembly line.

With the launch of Optimove AI, marketers can now analyse customer data, build audiences, design campaigns and generate creative content from within a single platform. 

Beyond Personalisation

AI’s role in CRM is most commonly understood through the lens of personalisation. Frank doesn’t dispute that. But he argues it only tells part of the story.

The more complex problem is what happens when a player is eligible for several campaigns simultaneously, each serving a different objective.

“When a player is eligible for multiple campaigns with different objectives, AI needs to arbitrate between them and decide what puts that player on the path to maximise lifetime value”, he said.

Frank calls this journey decisioning. 

Rather than optimising within a single campaign, Optimove AI looks across all active campaigns and determines which one serves the player’s long-term value at that moment. 

From Execution to Orchestration

The question of what AI means for marketing teams is one Frank has clearly thought about carefully.

“One thing that AI still doesn’t have and probably won’t have in the near future is judgment and taste,” he added.

AI can produce a three-page analysis of player data in seconds. What it can’t do is tell you which of those insights actually matters for your business right now. That call still belongs to the marketer.

What changes, he argues, is the nature of the job itself. Marketing teams will shift from campaign execution toward something closer to orchestration

Frank concludes, “Marketers will become managers of agents. AI can do the heavy lifting, but humans still need to decide which insights matter and apply the judgment and taste that machines can’t replicate.”

What Comes Next

Frank is candid about the limits of long-term planning in the current environment.

Road maps that once stretched two or three years ahead now have a horizon of six months, if that. The pace of model improvement makes prediction difficult. But on the fundamentals, he’s clear.

AI will keep getting better at production. It will keep getting faster and more capable. It’s that last mile that will remain human for the foreseeable future.

Watch the full episode here.