#1220 – Interactive Entertainment Bonanza!

The latest trends and developments marked the last few months of the year. IAAPA Expo Europe 2024 (IEE’24) is a major event defined as IAAPA EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa), held at the RAI Convention Center in the middle of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. The touring event returning to the venue six years since its last visit to Amsterdam.

AI Constructed Brief

The IAAPA Expo Europe 2024 (IEE’24), held in Amsterdam, showcased emerging trends in the amusement and attractions industry, drawing significant attendance from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the US. The event highlighted innovations in media-based and immersive technologies, with exhibitors like Lagotronics and DOF Robotics unveiling groundbreaking attractions and AI-powered solutions. The rise of Competitive Socializing was evident with new concepts in mini-golf and gamified experiences, while the amusement and social entertainment sectors demonstrated a growing integration of interactive gaming options. Despite a successful turnout of over 17,000 attendees and 680 exhibitors, challenges regarding event registration and organization marred the experience, prompting calls for improvements in future events. Looking ahead, the next IAAPA Expo Middle East is slated for 2026 in Abu Dhabi.

The recent developments in the amusement and attraction industry, highlighted by significant events such as the Brand Licensing Show (BLS) and Global Gaming Expo (G2E), reflect a dynamic landscape rich with opportunities for investors. Notable takeaways include the BLS’s impressive attendance surge, the introduction of Guinness World Records‘ first permanent venue in London, and the emergence of eSports and gaming innovations, particularly at G2E, where new gaming machines featuring beloved brands were being launched. The industry’s focus on IP and branding is evident, with Mattel exploring acquisition prospects, considering the success of the ‘Barbie Movie.’ However, caution surrounds the burgeoning AI sector, as mixed consumer responses to AI-driven services signal a need for more reliable technology solutions. Investors should watch for evolving opportunities in LBE, licensing, and gaming, as well as the potential impacts of AI advancements on operational efficiency and customer engagement.

Full Stinger Report

European Attraction Extravaganza

The layout of the show this year could be best described as split between six distinctive sections. The outside hall, including the IAAPA theatre, proved a bone of contention missed by many attendees because of questionable signage. But it was clear that the IEE’24 event was packed and attracted many of the EMEA sector, as well as US and Asian interest from attendees and exhibitors. In our exclusive coverage of the event, we will try and focus on those exhibitors and trends unique to the territory and avoid detailed coverage of those platforms we can expect to see in Orlando in a matter of months afterwards.

Media-Based Developments

Defining the future of the attraction sector, gamification and media-based technology are driving the business. Exhibitors promoting this approach included Lagotronics – the company presented their “world-first” attraction for Paultons Park in the UK. An interactive media-attraction entitled ‘Ghostly Manor’ is labelled as their first “Gameplay Theater”, incorporating new interactive darkride elements. The company was fresh from the successful opening of the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi installation of the ‘Ferrari E-Sports Arena’ – a space comprising several eSports race simulators, and a highly themed arena space for competition and tournaments with screens and seating. The space has been developed to promote competition in this sport, that has been key to other developments in the region.

Another prominent representative of this sector, DOF Robotics, had their popular ‘Hurricane 360 VR’ – along with the company revealing their latest innovation with ‘AIQ’, what is called a next-generation queue entertainment solution, which is powered by AI. We have more details of this in our Orlando reporting. During IEE’24, the company also had a press launch, and DOF revealed a brand-new development by the corporation with the launch of ‘Angry Birds: Fury Road’. This marks a series of ROVIO Angry Bird licenses revealed at the IEE’24 – the company was recently acquired by SEGA Corporation.

IEE’24 exhibitor MACK Ride had a lineup of new investment, including their new ‘Coastiality: Flowryde’ offering a six-rider platform. The trackless ride vehicle allows for versatility and optimum space utilization. The system was demonstrated in the video as a VR platform using PICO headsets for the riders. Representatives of MACK One confirmed that this platform will be part of a new Europa-Park attraction opening soon – developed in partnership with VR Coaster who were also exhibiting next door at the show. The technology, building off the deployment of a trackless ride experience, was included in the Europa-Park ‘Eatrenalin’ attraction.

Immersive-Based Developments

The explosion of VR, AR and MR in the European attraction and amusement scene has stabilized since an explosion of developments seen at previous IEE events. This year saw a much more measured approach from key exhibitors. The Park Playground took to the show floor to launch a new VR experience called ‘Carnival Showdown’, an immersive minigame able to appeal to new VR users. The company had a busy booth demonstrating the content, while also promoting their franchise facility business. The team took time to speak to The Stinger Report about how they have addressed the issues that saw the Leeds VR facility shutter, and revealed the happy news that the site has reopened under new management.

Another well-known VR name at the show, VEX Solutions, revealed the launch of ‘Smurfs: Blueberry Battle’ – a one-of-a-kind VR adventure bringing the magical world of the Smurfs to life, the game is developed by Vigo Creative. VEX Solutions announced they will be releasing this on their free-roam arena platform. The developers also confirmed they have also signed deals with other VR arcade distributors to make this game available through their network. The Smurfs IP has been in the attraction scene, with the launch of Latin America’s first ‘Smurfs Park’ in Sao Paulo opening in 2025 – following behind Dubai and Shanghai. VEX was also showing their Adventure and Arena variants, running demos.

Avoiding exhibiting on the show floor but instead holding a presentation at a nearby hotel, SPREE Interactive presented a smaller footprint standalone VR free-roam arena attraction, called ‘Cops Vs. Robbers: Arcade’. Comprising neon illumination and styling and developed in partnership with Knucklehead Studios, the ‘SPREE Go’ portable VR arena system allows a simple popup installation, supporting four players. The explosion in variably sized VR free-roam arenas marked the show. Exhibitor HOLOGATE Entertainment presented their ‘HOLOGATE Arena – Infinite’ system, building off their commercial simulation work.

Other exhibitors with something to shout about in the VR LBE arena scene included Virtual Zone Nexus with their free-roaming platform. And Zero Latency, looking at their 100th location operation, with some 4m games served. The company is using this leverage to launch a new free-roam VR arena. The big presentation of another popular IP in VR comes from. ‘Space Marine VR – Defenders of Avarax’, a license from the Warhammer 40k universe. During the show, it was announced that SandboxVR will be opening its second London facility inside the social entertainment site ‘Gravity MAX Wandsworth’ – situated on the top floor, the new VR installation is the first time that the company, comprising over 50 facilities, has located inside an existing entertainment space as an attraction. Gravity had previously installed a VR attraction developed by HOLOGATE – and had also installed an Immersive Gamebox setup on the same floor.

Not all the VR presentations on the IEE’24 floor were focused on free-roaming hardware. Some tethered VR platforms were still presented, such as ‘KOLISEUM’, the unique fooseball VR system. We also saw Sub Sea Systems presenting their VR snorkelling with the ‘DIVR’ and ‘Deep Dive VR’ self-contained platforms. The market for this technology has become dependent on a reliable source of VR headsets, and the developers of these systems focused for commercial application were at the Amsterdam show in force. HTC held a private mixer to promote the launch of their new HTC Focus XR headset, building off their previous dominance in the market and offering many enhancements aimed to support LBE VR. But other VR headset providers also attempted to make headway in this sector, with the likes of PICO and DPVR signing partnerships with leading entertainment manufactures.

While speaking of a successful Enterprise approach for VR and support from headset manufacturers, we must also touch on the less successful applications. Microsoft announced, at the end of 2023, they would be abandoning support of their Windows Mixed Reality standard (launched in 2017). And so, in October, with the latest update release of Windows 11, it was revealed that all support of Windows MR was removed, making the selection of PC VR headsets now unusable. Headsets had been created by Lenovo, Samsung and HP along with others that had supported the WinMR initiative. For VR arcade operators still depending on the Windows MR infrastructure, they have been forced to find a replacement. This situation underlines the disappointed market penetration this VR initiative achieved for Microsoft. This also was reflected with similar news that Microsoft had abandoned further production of their AR headset – the Hololens 2 will be discontinued or, as the corporation stated, “end of life” (this news had direct impact at IEE’24).

Along with VR, we saw the Mixed Reality (MR) “Pass-Through” capabilities of this technology being proposed into the entertainment space during IEE’24. On the Playdiscount booth, developer Heute ist Morgen Entertainment represented the ‘Laser Limbo’ platform. Developed by FreeRoam.AR, a developer comprising the team from VR Nerds (famous for creating ‘Tower Tag’), this turnkey solution offers up-to-ten players a chance to compete in a MR lasertag experience, with the system employing Meta Quest 3 Business Editions headsets. Focusing on the ability to create a simple popup attraction, the operation, following IEE24, announced an installation with ‘AR Lasertag Berlin’ at Treptower Park Center in the city.

Moving wider afield in the application of MR, with consideration of projection mapped and interactive floor and wall technology, and we were presented with the continued growth of Inowize’s ‘Qbix’. The six-player “Immersive Enclosure” has seen the company announce the signing of new deals and the creation of new content. Those immersive enclosure systems also include the project sports experiences from the likes of Sports Simulator, who were represented on the ExperienceUK booth. These “Active Entertainment” experiences have mushroomed in recent months (as we reported in previous coverage).

At IEE’24, exhibitor Battle Company presented their ‘Flash Pads’ interactive illuminated floor game system, now focusing on attraction and amusement venue installation. Developer Valo Motion promoted their suite of active experiences, while Pleyo presented their ‘Active Social Play’ platform.

During the European show, news of the growing investment in this side of the business was revealed. The explosion of the sports entertainment brands, in support of the boom in Active Entertainment, was seen across the market. All these sites are wanting to be seen as the equivalent of what TopGolf has done to the golf game – looking like VR, at the franchise opportunity to grow business. Investment was revealed for TOCA Social, with some £100m to grow their operation following the rollout in London. Developer and operator Jumpshot announced their plans to move forward on opening their facility concept. And many, many more new developers and openings have been charted.

News comes from Little Lion Entertainment, creator of Augmented Reality (AR) experiences. While we at The Stinger would define their work more in the field of Mixed Reality (MR), using primarily projection mapped platforms, the company has installed in Manchester their ‘Game Arena’, offering initially the ‘Chaos Karts’ attraction – with multiple projectors creating “racetrack” for the eKarting experience. In a new announcement, the company revealed a new attraction going into this space.

Called ‘Pac-Man Live Experience’ and developed in collaboration with BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, the attraction has players running around as the lead character, chasing ghosts. A projected environment reimagines the iconic videogame maze. This MR/AR environment game space looks at projection mapped attractions in a new light. Little Lion Entertainment is known for its ‘The Crystal Maze Live Experiences’, ‘Tomb Raider: The Live Experience’ and ‘Chaos Karts’ developments. The corporation recently acquired The Games Arenas – developers behind the projection mapped platform.

Amusement-Based Developments

While amusement is still an important part of the IAAPA EMEA mix, the show was reflecting many of the trends that had been seen across the sector in the last few months. Well-known names such as SEGA Amusement International, UDC, Electrocoin, and BANDAI NAMCO Amusement Europe (BNAE) were in court. BNAE was representing Raw Thrills, who chose the European event to reveal the “New Chapter” for their immersive spectacular ‘Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR’. The ‘Angry Bird Arcade’ production prototype was also revealed for the first time.

Other amusement specialist making the trek to Amsterdam included Adrenaline Amusements and TouchMagix – with redemption and prize machines presented prominently. This includes the “new wave cranes” machines from leading Chinese exhibitors who were choosing to show in Europe, rather than a few weeks later in the US. Redemption and prize games show included SkillOnNet an iGaming operator with extensive brands, and startup Betterlore announced ‘The Coin Pusher’ – what the Stinger has defined as “Live Play”, which is available now in selected markets before it rolls out globally over the coming months.

The Indian amusement and attraction market was reported to be seeing considerable growth – in a report, according to analysis, JLL states that the Indian market represents some 500 Indoor Amusement Center (IAC) business across the country, with 90 of the country’s malls playing host to these venues. The IEE’24 event offered a snapshot of the leading amusement trends. Rather than repeating the narrative, we will look at this in more detail in our coming IAAPA Orlando coverage.

Social Entertainment Based Developments

The explosion in interest in the “Competitive Socializing” sector was reflected the strongest on the IEE’24 floor. Exhibitors such as Game Volt, a division of CONDUCTR, offered a chance to see their latest drop in solutions such as their gamified shuffleboard – ‘Supercharged Shuffle’, which was celebrating its 75th installation, with some 3m pucks thrown globally, across the four different games. The system was seen at Dave & Buster’s as part of their Social Bay initiative. IEE took place, coincidentally, a few days after the ‘International Table Shuffleboard Day’ – celebrating the rich history of this pastime that can trace its roots back to 1500. Competitive Socializing can be seen with the ‘Electric Shuffle’ chain in the UK and US, having opened its sixth venue with their 10,000-sq.ft. New York flagship site. The traditional game is still highly popular, the 41st International Shuffleboard Association (ISA) World Championship was scheduled to take place from October.

This was matched by the exposition of Gamified minigolf platforms revealed at the show – GreenSpan presented their ‘Puttify’. While Remarkaball came with their application, alongside Holovis with their technology infused ‘360Golf’. Another IEE’24 exhibitor, City Golf Europe, showed their ‘Quest Mission Rooms’ with players using wristbands. While they also announced their ‘Putt EVO’ platform, the company has designed some 2,500 mini-golf installations. Active play is impacting all of the sector, and during the show it was announced that Chuck E. Cheese has gone all in on other activities such as the interactive dance floor, trampoline zones, and kiosks, which have been installed at some 400 locations since they began popping up last year. The brand received a $350 million investment to revamp its fun centers.

In new development news away from the show, and the deployment of secondary business to existing Competitive Socializing spaces was indicated by the news that ‘Swingers West End’ had redeveloped part of their venue for a new ‘Carnival’ space to their existing site. The original 16,000-sq.ft. mini-golf and F&B location opened in September a new 2,500sq.ft. carnival space comprising off-the-shelf redemption (‘Skeeball’, ‘Down-the-Clown’, ‘Whack-A-Mole’, etc.) and what were called “old-school arcade” games (30 in all). The free-to-enter space uses player cards (wrist band) that are purchased and topped up to play, collecting the points generated from the games, redeemed for Swingers branded merch. Swingers – The Crazy Golf Club operates two venues in the UK and has started a rollout plan in the US, with New York and Washington DC sites opening (and a Las Vegas venue in development). The West End site is so far the only one to include the carnival concept.

This is the latest inclusion of redemption style gaming into Competitive Socializing, following the original ‘FairGame’ venue that opened in 2022, also in London (The Stinger attended its opening and reported on this). It was obvious that the social entertainment scene would turn towards amusement platforms to offer secondary revenue. And it reflects the realisation that this emerging market is now seeing the need to have secondary and tertiary sales revenue. ‘Swingers Carnival’ is using off-the-shelf amusement, while ‘FairGame’ developed their own attractions to mixed results. Whether this means a flurry of social entertainment sites rushing to amusement manufacturers has yet to be seen, but the number of amusement venues that are now including a social element (see D&B’s ‘Social Bays’ for an example), could chart a new chapter in the market.

Just after writing this coverage, and the relevance of the observation was brought home with the news that Funlabs in Australia had announced a new addition to their existing facility. The ‘Holey Moley’ Melbourne, Australia venue has launched ‘Funhouse’ – an addition to the existing crazy golf venue, now on the ground floor, with amusement and game machines themed in a funhouse aesthetic now populated the space. Called a “game changer” by the operation, the continued investment in the space to maximize appeal was to be followed by automated scoring for the mini-golf environment. This is an additional indication, as if needed, for the need in the social entertainment sphere for secondary revenue spend options – and possibly points to the changes in the standalone Competitive Socializing approach to the business.

Speaking about new openings, and Manchester Printworks location expanded its competitive socializing space – first with a new installation of ‘Boom Battle Bar’, and then with the first example of the Spider Entertainment’s ‘SpiderBox’. Opening in October, the 7,500-sq.ft. venue comprises karaoke, interactive music experiences, and race simulators (for transparency Stinger Report publishers have been an advisor for the operation). Printworks is looking to become an entertainment destination for the area, with good food and an IMAX cinema. The site has seen a £27m investment in the location, and the venue employs a unique digital ceiling, looking to attract an expected 8m footfall.

One of the surprise developments in the sector reveals a social entertainment perspective for holiday resort business, with the news of Butlin‘s new £15 million ‘PLAYXPERIENCE’ centre. A first of its kind on any holiday resort in the UK, the indoor play centre spans 50,000sqft across two floors and comes equipped with a range of exciting activities, including hi-tech mini golf game ‘Tech Putt’, in which computerised golf balls track each player’s stats, three escape rooms covering a range of themes, a VR arcade with an assortment of bespoke experiences, shuffleboard with some of the longest tables in Europe, digital darts, laser tag, an AR batting cage, a café and a bar. The plans have seen 18 months of work for the holiday resort chain.

In Conclusion – IEE’24 was a successful gathering with a reported 17,370 attending the four-day event to come and see some 680 exhibitors. Some lessons need to be learned by the organizers as stated below, but fundamentally, the event achieved the key goals of promoting the European aspect of the business and revealing the opportunities in the market. It was supported by extensive educational sessions and a strong mixer and private event dance-card. It was confirmed that Barcelona, Spain, from September 22nd to 25th, 2025 will play host to the IEE event, with the show organizers speaking in private of plans to return to London, confirmed for 2026.

New Show

In other developments from the IAAPA association, the long-rumored development of a major exhibition to their roster was confirmed. It was revealed that IAAPA Expo Middle East is set to take place from 30th March to 2nd April 2026, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This timing places the new IAAPA-ME squarely in the middle of the DEAL and SEA events in the region. The pressure will be heavy on key exhibitors in this region to pick one of the three shows, and pressure will be extreme to support IAAPA to retain privileges for the other IAAPA events. More of the fallout from this news was to be seen in Orlando in November.

Question of Registration

For a second year, and in one of the worst examples, the first day of IAAPA proved a mess, with long queues of attendees, exhibitors and media waiting to get into the hall and register. Frantic scenes ensued as delegates were unable to attend the opening ceremony in the IAAPA Theater. Exhibitors who had paid vast amounts to exhibit were furious as they waited in some cases for hours to get to their booth and do business.

The show organizers attempted to placate complaints, blaming the RAI venue organizers for the delay, but then attempted to deflect criticism, when the problem from last year was brought up. Suggestions of false economies by the organizers in how they arrange their registration process were levelled again at the operation – along with complaints regarding show signage and app functionality. All eyes will be on Barcelona next year to see if any lessons have been learned.

Infused Gaming, Competition, & Entertainment

Playing catchup on all the developments that impacted the amusement and attraction international trade towards the big November event and the end of the year, and we continue to look at the pivotal trade events.

The Brand Licensing Show (BLS) in London marked its 25th anniversary, and surprised observers with a 10,847 attendance (up from 9,546 a year ago) with a show floor at the ExCel venue that also saw exhibitors rise 5-percent to 242 (up from 230). The licensing event has proven a mecca for amusement and attraction, with IP and branding from key videogames properties and media appearing in LBE. So much so, the BLS event includes a dedicated LBE session.

Gaming brands were prominent on the floor, with the celebrations marking the 15th anniversary of Angry Birds – a property that has been deployed in video games and movies. Is also influential in LBE, attractions, amusement and VR arcade. Announced during the show, Guinness World Records is to open its first permanent entertainment venue in central London. The venue will provide more than 60 games and competitions that encourage children and adults to break records. Set to open in early 2026, £50mn in investment will be made over the next five years to grow the brand. The brand, owned by Vancouver-based Jim Pattison Group, is planned to open at least ten venues in the US, Asia and the Middle East in the next five years.

On the BLS’24 floor, Mattel was in evidence. We previously reported in The Stinger on speculation of a possible acquisition – while Hasbro has been dismissed as unlikely, sources have suggested a possible luxury goods brand is looking to acquire the IP and toy operation. The operation was placing its house in order with news of the departure from Mattel TV division of leading executives, as the operation started layering up. Basking in the success of the ‘Barbie Movie’, developed in collaboration with Warner Bros., and sources suggested that the financial success from this blockbuster was mooted due to unfavourable contracts, and the Mattel board was redressing issues with their division. It was suggested that Warner Bros. is undergoing its own troubles and possible acquisition could create a restructuring.

Moving away from the branding and into the world of competitive racing and eSports, and the crowded show calendar for October saw the holding of the 10th anniversary of ADAC Simracing Expo. Many of the new sim racing rigs aimed at professional racers and eSports competitors were on show. We will report on some of the bleed-over into LBE application – fuelled by the success of F1 Arcade – in our coverage from the IAAPA Orlando show floor, where many of these systems appeared.

Continuing competition, eSports and gaming, and held during this crowded slot of the year, was the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 24th Annual event organized by Reed Exhibitions (RX), in association with the American Gaming Association (AGA). The show of show for the gaming sector had a lot of new developments in the traditional slots and digital gaming scene, much fuelled by AI investment. Although other technology applications were harder to ascertain.

It was announced during the event that Everi Holdings Inc. (Everi), provider of land-based and digital casino gaming content and products, was releasing two gaming machines based on the licensed brands of ‘Skee-Ball’ and ‘Pop-A-Shot’ – these veteran amusement brands making the move into the gaming space, planned to be released in 2025. The venerable brand of ‘Skee-ball’ was first produced in 1908 and has been a stalwart of amusement facility operation. This is the first time these properties have appeared in the casino sector.

As always, IP and branding played a large part in establishing the new releases in the slot gaming and igaming sector on the show floor. Other examples included Aristocrat Gaming, announced the expansion of their National Football League (NFL) license. Charted at G2E’24 was the need to entice new players to the casino landscape through familiar IP and branding, as part of the drive by the industry to redress the drop in older player attendance following COVID.

The M&A situation of the market was reflected on the show floor, for example as seen following the July news that Apollo Global Management would be forming a new holding company – taking control of International Game Technology (IGT) gaming division, IGT Gaming and Everi Holding operation, for a combined investment of over $6b. IGT has decided to separate their gaming business from the core corporation, while Everi gaming and igaming businesses will now fall under this new operation. The new combined operation exhibited at G2E’24 for the first time – with a vast ‘Wheel of Fortune Zone’ promoting their successful range, expanding by another 11 pieces.

Broken by media source Esports Insider, global eSports and entertainment company Allied Gaming and Entertainment, the parent company of Allied Esports, has announced a $6.6m (£5m) strategic investment from private equity manager Yellow River Global Capital. Non-profit organisation Skillhub Online Games Federation (SOGF) and the International Esports Federation (IESF) have joined forces to bring international eSports tournaments to India. In other news regarding the eSports scene, NODWIN Gaming, an Indian eSports gaming operation, had acquired Freaks 4U Gaming, a German eSports operation, for over $20m. This follows an initial 57-percent share acquisition – and indicates the importance of this territory in the growth of both participation and consumption of eSports event.

In Conclusion – the G2E’24 event saw a record attendance with more than 25,000 attendees from the international gaming scene coming to see some 400 exhibitors. This is the latest exhibition in the entertainment and gaming sector to see record attendance.

The “Kinda” Tech Revolution

The technology trends coming home to roost include what has been defined as “Kinda” technology – that kind of does what the tech gurus promised it could achieve, only for the reality that, sometime down the road, it is found wanting. Literary, AI has started to hit a wall and eat its own tails, causing panic in the R&D divisions of all the social media operations that implemented the sophisticated machine learning (large language model) platforms. Imminent legal battles, and the failure of the AI platforms to perform reliably, let alone generate revenue, have investors starting to sweat.

In the face of the cost-of-living crisis and financial downturns globally, the investors and accountants are looking critically at the money being spent – closer than ever before. The days of blowing vast sums on tech pipedreams such as the Metaverse, Bitcoin, NFTs and VR, that fail to achieve their promised adoption, and “kinda” achieved the scope of its claimed performance, are over. The “videogames apocalypse” is revealing the ending of “free money” and seeing more realistic business approaches, and mass layoffs of those gurus!

More AI Investment

Charting the AI seen at IAAPA-EMEA and G2E, it is obvious that this technology is having a major influence on the markets. The utilisation of Artificial Intelligence in the hospitality and service sector has been met with some pushback. As reported in Restaurant Business, Mood Media had conducted a survey with 1,000 patrons of restaurant drive-thru and self-service kiosks employing AI support. The first question was regarding how comfortable they were with placing orders with an AI “bot”, at fast food restaurants. Only 14-percent were not at all comfortable, while 26-percent being very comfortable. Other points raised by the survey saw 37-percent seeing better accuracy from bot service and 31-percent saw faster service from the AI support. But it was the 30-percent of those surveyed that felt the technology was an unwanted evolution. This underlies a growing concern that consumers are not totally convinced that the technology is safe, reliable, and ready for prime time (we would recommend visiting the site to see the full survey results).

The mixed results in the adoption of AI powered assistance in the service side of the hospitality sector have seen the announcement that McDonalds fast food restaurant has closed their AI powered drive-thru experiment, which was being implemented in partnership with a new AI development studio. This follows social media coverage of frustrated customers battling with the AI powered assistant, failing to take their orders at numerous drive-thru locations. This move comes only weeks after Amazon dumped their own AI platform powering their ‘Amazon Go’ chain of convenience stores. Previously, we reported the “Actually Indians” term being the meaning of “AI”, as a joke surrounding the AI powered ‘Amazon Fresh’ camera-based payment system, (the alleged camera based frictionless payment platform depending more on subcontractors looking at the camera footage than AI). Amazon is not the only corporation that has been using “humans in the loop” towards the deployment of their claimed AI platforms.

Directly impacting location-based entertainment, and speaking again of the Australian operation, it was reported that Funlabs had started an experiment at their ‘Holey Moley’ chain of mini-golf social entertainment venues to deploy AI to help facilitate customer choices, marketing, and addressing the whole guest experience. The AI application, in these cases, felt like specialized algorithms were being employed to create a customizable guest experience – and the terminology of AI seemed stretched. Also, in the museum sector, it was reported that several venues were also using AI powered applications to support guest information. The deployment of smart search engines and language models is facilitating these duties. We can look forward to seeing more examples during the IAAPA Orlando coverage soon.