A new “experiential AI”-powered travel technology startup just launched, owned by a travel industry technology veteran and promising to give hotels, resorts, cruise lines and theme parks the ability to connect “awareness of the physical environment with permissioned identity, guest preferences and live operational context.”
In short, Spaxial, the newly launched startup headed by the creator of Princess Cruises’ Princess Medallion and Disney’s MagicBand, is aiming to use AI across public spaces on a cruise ship, at a resort, or in a theme park to surveil guests and staff.
The entire company is centered upon what it calls experiential AI. Along with combining hospitality systems together in a single platform, including bookings, guest apps and team resources, Spaxial will use LiDAR, wearables and more for “location awareness” for both guests and staff.
According to the company’s launch press release, “Spaxial’s AI is built to answer one question, consistently and in the moment, across every venue: given this guest, in this place, at this moment, under these conditions, what should happen next, and what should not?”
For some, this might not be a worrying symptom of our technological century, but a new development as emerging technology integrates into the travel space.
Yet for me personally, it screams Big Brother.
AI is already a worrying technology. Sure, it might make some office workers' daily tasks easier. Yet independently operating AI agents have been known to do some shady stuff without even being prompted by a human—causing even the people running these AI companies to show trepidation and fear about what they’ve created.
Having AI watch guests on a cruise ship or in a hotel for the purposes of—what, exactly?—trying to guess what the traveler wants, where they’re going, what they’re doing, all out of a desire to provide more personalized experiences, feels wrong.
I'm a big believer in if it feels wrong, that's probably because it is wrong.
I’m curious to see which travel brands choose to start using this technology—and I’d be incredibly hesitant about ever choosing them for my travel experiences.
While you can opt out of its use, guests will be highly encouraged to opt in, giving Spaxial more information than just your name and room number—it’ll know where you like to dine for breakfast, when you go work out, which beach or pool you prefer—all for the sake of increased personalization, better service and operations.
I wonder why such a technology isn’t already raising eyebrows.
Are we so used to already being surveilled—everyone already has ready access to a recording device, after all, and are more than willing to use it in nearly every situation, not to mention Flock services or anything Palantir is cooking up—that we would allow AI to watch and predict our every move on our next cruise?
This new startup isn’t about security and safety; even if it were, I would be incredibly skeptical.
Furthermore, becoming reliant on a watchful predictive technology changes what it means to provide and be provided with good service.
Service today is a decidedly human practice. Staff in resorts, cruise ships and theme parks have to be aware of their guests, learn their names and know whether they drink coffee with breakfast or what kind of live music they enjoy.
It takes a decided amount of effort to work in a service-related industry like the travel industry, assisting, helping and serving other people daily—I have the utmost respect for everyone who does it.
What happens when their focus shifts from attentive guest care to listening to Spaxial notifications alerting them that a guest is heading their way, or that a passenger who always orders their favorite drink at their favorite bar is suddenly changing course? What happens when Spaxial predicts something that doesn’t happen—and suddenly they might be to blame for it? What happens when that technology is used on them to determine whether they’re not doing enough, according to the algorithm?
While working to achieve the same results—providing great service to guests and keeping the ship, resort, or theme park shipshape—their attention will be divided as they try to satisfy the demands of a new technology that watches them as closely as it watches us.
In all honesty, I don’t know exactly how Spaxial will be implemented beyond its own vague self-definition. Yet its very vagueness is suspicious.
While I distrust it, I also don’t believe it’s necessary for the travel industry, which has survived as a uniquely human industry in an age of increasing automation. One in nine people worldwide works in the travel and tourism sector, and that number is only expected to grow.
Giving a privately owned company the ability to watch and predict what we as guests and passengers do, along with the staff and crew, is not a good idea, and it’s not necessary.
Let security cameras do their job, as they’ve always done, and let the staff and crew do their job, as they’ve always done so well.
We as guests and travelers neither want nor need AI-powered surveillance when our biggest desires are to relax, explore and connect with the people we love—often away from the pervasive, cloying technology that surrounds us in our daily lives.
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