i'm not sure i completely understand AI. one of my favorite games (dark souls) had completely scripted AI and i still loved it. can someone explain to me exactly what upgrades in AI would result in as far as gameplay?

I voted physics but i'm not sure that means what i want it to mean. what i want to vote for is environments. i love games like infamous and AC where the environment is almost it's own character...large and very interactive environments. or in games like uncharted's massive set pieces. or destructable environments.  that's what i want more of.  

i think the best AI is another person.  so to that i say don't impove AI, find creative ways to make more games multiplayer.  xD

I voted for AI. Physics would've been my second choice.

ALL MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA

no but seriously ALL of those things are important for next gen improvement, we've hit the barrier for nothing this gen

Thanks everyone for response, I wanted to see, from technical standpoint, what field people find that is most important to improve (AI for me, btw). I agree with posters that mentioned gameplay, but since it's game design related and not tech (for most part), it is not in the poll.

@Kittler - Destructible environments come under physics - as Red Faction: Guerrilla nicely demonstrated, it can be integral part of gameplay, and once games move away from current polygon-based game engines and start using voxel-based engines I'm guessing we'll see a lot more of that.

Looks like physics affects gameplay the most, so I'll give my vote to them.

The rest are pretty much equal, save for AI-centric games. Can't really say I'm bothered with the current AI though.

AI.

When you shoot a guy, in a large but dispersed group of enemies facing different directions from cover, and they all spin and immediately start shooting the exact spot you are hiding in, it pulls you a little out of the immersion.

Or scripted AI paths. It would be cool if it could reach a level where the AI is entirely random. Like a guard can stop for a smoke, or leave his post to take a piss in the toilet and stop to ask another guard to cover for him. They wouldn't walk in straight lines, or stand perfectly still for hours.

There's so much room for improvement with AI. However I don't think it's a high priority for most devs, probably because it's very difficult to program.