Last year the South West Coast Path, the 630 mile coastal trail from Minehead in Somerset to Studland in Dorset (UK), was named the world's happiest walk.

The award was not judged by a group of transportation professionals, psychologists or hikers. It was judged by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Smile-recognition software was used by outdoor holiday provider Inghams to analyse social media photos (Instagram and Facebook) to see which popular walking trails around the world, including the Canadian Rockies and the Alps, bring the biggest smiles to walkers’ faces. The South West Coast Path’s had an overall happiness score of 99.30.

When I started work in 1999 there was a distrust of technology and AI wasn’t part of our vocabulary. The paperless office was an unimaginable utopia and hybrid working just a far-flung fictional fantasy.

Our world has changed significantly over the last 5 years and is likely to transform even more dramatically in the coming years.

In recent weeks I’ve interviewed transport professionals about their use of AI in their every day and working lives. 50% said they have used AI (e.g., Chat GPT) once or twice. 30% use AI sometimes, 5% claim to be proficient in training/using their own AI, whilst 15% have no knowledge or understanding of AI.

AI can be a confusing space. We’ve all seen wild imagines of AI stealing our jobs.

  • Healthcare AI can scan and understand our medical records faster than a nurse
  • Finance AI can scan bank transactions and understand if we’re suitable for a loan faster than a mortgage broker.

In the transport sector, some of the questions people are asking are:

  • What are the digital skills required?
  • Do we have enough digital skills to keep up with demand?

Entrepreneurs, business strategists, founders, and innovators from different industries around the world are suggesting that if any industry wants to stay ahead they need to think not about what happening now, but instead about what’s coming next. In other words, not think about the AI we’re using today (e.g., ChatBots), but instead about future possibilities.

Put simply, instead of investing time and money chasing wild AI fantasies, we would be better placed turning our current expertise into systems and processes that work better and solve real problems. Utilising AI as an assistant, not a job replacement. For example: –

  • Identify which existing processes need more computing power
  • Transforming existing processes, making them more scalable, accessible and impactful
  • Uncomplicating, not overcomplicating, tasks that work
  • Streamlining tasks that are the most computing time heavy, with better processes.

Last week I had my first experience using Amazon Fresh. AI scanned me picking three items off the shelf. It didn’t make shopping better or more impactful. Quite the opposite. I don’t have an Amazon account, nor did I open one. I had to photograph a QR code, log into a platform, obtain a code from my bank, download a receipt and finally, cross reference the receipt with my bank transactions. I won’t ever use it again.

Whether we are using it or not, AI will continue to judge if we’re happy, understand if we’re sick and categorise our overspending.

For me, the real difference and the truly transformational benefits for transport, the people who use transport and for society in general is when we as an industry can couple a well-trained trusted professional workforce with brilliant processes – because we’re most happy when transport strategies/plans have robust monitoring/implementation systems/processes – just like every long-distance coast path hiker is happy when they find good pub grub!

 

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