Leveraging LEGO® Serious Play® to embrace AI and robots in tourism

Abstract

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have begun to challenge conventional notions of consumption, production, and management of tourism service offerings. For example, intelligent machines are increasingly being used to handle routine customer enquiries, prepare and serve drinks and food, and monitor and report faults and security breaches (Ivanov, Webster, & Berezina, 2017). However, Murphy, Gretzel, and Pesonen (2019) observe that many tourism businesses still fail to make the most of the available technology. Faced with a plethora of possibilities, tourism operators may find it difficult to decide which technologies to adopt and which to ignore. Equally challenging might be deciding where, when, and how a new technology should be introduced, as well as understanding what its impacts might be for the individual, organisation, and the industry. The situation calls for research methods suitable for addressing forward-looking research questions with complex practical, ethical, and socio-economic implications, including the impacts of automation on customer experience, management, and regulation. Following in the footsteps of Wengel, McIntosh, and Cockburn-Wootten (2016), it can be suggested that serious gaming, in particular a method known as LEGO® Serious Play®, will help tourism researchers and practitioners better navigate and harness the dynamic landscape of emerging technology. As discussed by Peabody and Noyes (2017), LEGO® Serious Play® is a brainstorming method that makes use of LEGO® bricks to facilitate communication, expression, and problem-solving. Through a series of building activities and peer discussions, LEGO® bricks are used to create stories about the intangible world. The purpose is to break free from the constraints of habitual thinking – the focus is not on the actual bricks themselves, but on the stories they tell and the metaphors they convey (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014).