Harpo Lilja, Founder of Tugi Tark, on Solving iGaming Customer Support Challenges with AI

The iGaming world moves fast, and players expect support that's just as fast, accurate, and reliable. But delivering that level of service isn’t easy. Between 24/7 demand, multiple languages, and strict regulatory requirements, operators often find themselves stretched thin.

We sat down with Harpo Lilja, Founder of Tugi Tark, to explore the biggest challenges of iGaming support, and how the right technology can transform player experience.

What are the biggest customer support problems that iGaming operators face today?
The biggest challenges are speed, availability, accuracy, and scale. Players expect instant answers, yet many operators still use outdated tools that rely heavily on manual processes. That creates delays, backlogs, and ultimately, frustrated players who churn. At the same time, compliance and responsible gaming requirements add another layer of complexity. Missing a single red-flag interaction isn’t only a poor service experience for the player, but it can quickly escalate into a regulatory or reputational issue.

Why is support in this industry harder than in others?
iGaming never sleeps. Players are active 24/7, across multiple markets, languages, and time zones, and they expect seamless support at any moment. But this industry goes beyond standard customer service. iGaming support teams aren’t just answering FAQs; they’re resolving financial transactions, technical issues, and compliance-sensitive cases in real time, without room for error. Very few industries carry that level of pressure.

What are the main pain points you kept hearing from operators before starting Tugi Tark?
Before launching Tugi Tark, we heard the same pain points repeatedly: multilingual support was driving costs up, response times lagging, and critical VIP or compliance cases were slipping through the cracks.
After nearly a decade of running support ourselves, it was clear operators weren’t struggling because of their teams, but because they lacked the right infrastructure. That’s what convinced us the industry needed a purpose-built solution that could scale globally and deliver a premium player experience.

How does your solution make life easier for operators and their players?
Tugi Tark makes support simpler, faster, and smarter for both operators and players. More than 50% of routine inquiries are resolved by AI Agents, while smart routing ensures the rest go to the right specialist. For players, that means help in seconds instead of hours. For operators, it translates into lower costs, fewer complaints, and VIP and compliance-sensitive cases are always handled with priority.

When AI and humans collaborate in this way, with speed, availability, and empathy working together, the result is a phenomenal player experience. And with every passing day, it’s becoming clearer just how much AI is disrupting customer service.

How do you handle the challenge of supporting players in many different languages?
Language has always been one of the biggest barriers in iGaming support, and it’s expensive to solve with traditional staffing. That’s why we built AI-powered translation into TUGI, covering +249 languages with accuracy tailored to iGaming terminology.
For operators, this means they can expand into new markets without the cost and complexity of building entire native-speaking teams. For players, it means every interaction feels local and personal, no matter where they’re playing from. That sense of being understood in your own language is a powerful driver of trust, loyalty, and long-term satisfaction.

What makes your platform stand out compared to other support tools?
What sets Tugi Tark apart is experience and focus. Having handled more than 10 million iGaming support tickets through the previous business, we know exactly what players expect and what support teams need to deliver. We’ve used this historical data to train our AI, making it the only AI Agent that fully understands the intricacies of iGaming and its terminology.
While there are many competitors in the support solutions market, we remain the only provider fully dedicated to iGaming. That experience is our competitive edge, and it’s what led us to design a solution that truly fits the realities of this industry.

How does your system work together with human support teams?
We believe AI should empower humans, not replace them. With our player support software, TUGI, AI Agents handle the repetitive and routine inquiries, categorize and prioritize tickets, and escalate seamlessly within the same system when a human touch is required. That means players get instant answers where possible, and personal care where it matters most.
For support teams, this is a reinvention of their role. Humans stay at the top of the chain, making complex decisions, refining policies, overseeing integrations, and continuously training the AI to perform better.
This way, AI and humans complement each other. The technology delivers speed, availability, and accuracy, while humans focus on the cases where personal care makes the biggest impact.

What feedback have you received from operators so far?
Operators tell us the AI Agent is making an immediate impact by automating routine inquiries while handling sensitive areas like responsible gaming with built-in safeguards.
They also value the multi-brand functionality, which lets them manage tickets across multiple casino brands in one queue while still customizing each brand. Combined with AI-powered translation, this means operators can expand into new markets quickly and cost-effectively, without the need for large native-speaking teams.
Larger operators are now pushing us even further, guiding how they want AI to interact with their platforms and what actions it should take next.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities to improve customer support in the future?
The next big leap will be AI agents advancing from answering questions to actually executing tasks. For example, if a player requests a bonus and meets the eligibility criteria, the AI will grant it instantly, no human intervention needed. Similarly, if a player shows signs of risky behavior, the AI could immediately time out the account to protect both the player and the operator.
Another major step is proactive support. Imagine a player becoming inactive on the deposit page: Instead of waiting for the player to reach out, the AI detects the inactivity and engages them directly on-screen to offer help. This kind of real-time, intelligent support will completely redefine how iGaming operators interact with players.

What’s coming next from Tugi Tark that you’re most excited to share with the industry?
We’re very excited about what’s next. One of the newest developments is our dashboards, which give operators a complete view of their support operations in real time. From live performance metrics to historical trends, our dashboards enable operators to make data-driven decisions.
At the same time, we’re launching an AI Sandbox. This is a controlled environment where operators can experiment with building AI Agents tailored specifically to their brand. Operators can upload their own knowledge hub, define parameters like tone of voice, patience, and verbosity, and even script greetings and farewells.
This gives operators an inside look at our AI Agents that not only speak the language of iGaming, but speak in the unique voice of their casino. It’s a level of customization the industry hasn’t had before, and a chance to test our solution in practice before committing to a partnership. We believe that combination will be a real game-changer for operators.

As our conversation with Harpo Lilja wraps up, one thing is clear: the future of iGaming support lies in seamless collaboration between AI and human expertise.

Tugi Tark is stepping into that future, offering AI-powered translation across 249+ languages, real-time dashboards, brand-level customization, and the upcoming AI Sandbox, all built specifically for iGaming. By combining technological muscle with deep industry insight, Tugi Tark enables operators to scale globally, reduce costs, and deliver the kind of player support that builds loyalty.

If you're ready to elevate your player experience and future-proof your support operations, Tugi Tark is leading the way.

Learn more at www.tugitark.com