Hasbro Could Roll Dice on AI-Powered Dungeons & Dragons

Would you play an AI-powered version of Dungeons & Dragons?

That tabletop game’s publisher, Hasbro, is apparently getting deeper into artificial intelligence (AI) thanks to a partnership with Xplored, creator of the digital board game platform Teburu, Gizmodo reported Sunday (July 30).

The report cites a recent announcement from Hasbro’s gaming senior vice president, Adam Biehl, saying the partnership would let the company “deliver innovative gameplay to our players and fans, limitless digital expansions to physical games, seamless onboarding, and powerful AI-driven game mechanics.”

In a separate interview with GamesRadar, Biehl said the company could use AI to generate experiences that could immediately respond to player decisions right away and potentially streamline rules to give newer players an easier time.

The partnership also lets Hasbro explore Xplored’s technology, especially in terms of Teburu, which last year debuted a virtual tabletop solution for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

The Gizmodo report notes that AI doesn’t seem popular with some corners of the D&D community. Last week, the online D&D marketplace Dungeon Masters Guild announced it would block the sale of “standalone” AI art products, and would require AI-generated art featured in rulebooks and adventures to be explicitly labeled as such. And beginning Monday (July 31), written content that was “primarily” AI-generated would be barred from the platform.

In other circles, AI is more welcome.

“In addition to AI’s promising greenfield opportunity areas within the enterprise back-end, the technology is also poised to revolutionize consumer-facing touch points across a swathe of sector agnostic engagements,” PYMNTS wrote last week.

Past reports here have explored the large and growing opportunity for businesses to use AI agents to respond to messages at scale, a historically labor- and cost-intensive process.

For example, DoorDash has begun testing an AI-based chatbot to enhance ordering and help customers discover the food options best suited to them.

“AI enables us to optimize customer experiences, but all while minimizing fraud and compliance issues,” Andrew Stucchio of Discover Global Network told PYMNTS, while Olivier Thierry, chief revenue officer at HungerRush, told PYMNTS that voice AI is particularly useful in pizza restaurants, where consumers disproportionately phone in their orders.

“The technology is more accurate, efficient and consistent than many human employees,” Thierry said.