SANDALS Corporate University (SCU) on Thursday announced a multimillion-US dollar project with EON Reality to provide cutting-edge spatial artificial intelligence (AI) technology to its more than 18,000 professionals.

EON, a global leader in virtual and augmented reality (XR), blends AI and XR with the world’s most expansive learning library – housing over six million assets – and a code-free environment for content development. The advanced AI-based features of EON Reality’s suite of offerings will enable SCU to streamline the creation of customised training content, and the EON AI assistant will offer support, facilitating the creation, distribution and consumption of information.

The partnership was made possible through an EON Reality grant to the tune of US$30,071,400, an in-kind co-investment from EON and a donation through EON Reality Learn for Life Foundation to cover the full cost of the EON-XR programme delivery.

Speaking at the launch event at Sandals Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios, St Ann, SCU Senior Corporate Director Dr Luz Longsworth lauded the initiative as a futuristic moment that is transformative in relation to teaching and learning.

“It is going to be one of those technologies that disrupt how we do things in our training,” Dr Longsworth said while allaying fears people might have in relation to AI. “We shouldn’t be worried about this technology, not when we are partnering with an organisation like EON. EON states in all its documentation that knowledge is a human right that should be available, accessible, and affordable for everyone on the planet. What we have been embarking on is a giant step.”

A distinguishing feature of the technology is the use of spatial AI, equipped with a fully interactive avatar capable of perceiving and engaging with its surroundings. The AI-driven avatar can demonstrate, explain and teach various hospitality topics using XR demonstrations while also guiding and assisting users in real-world tasks and providing real-time feedback.

EON Reality Co-founder and President Mats Johansson said the purpose of the partnership is to make virtual and augmented reality easy to create and share for the purpose of learning and achieving XR democratisation for education.

“There’s been many attempts over a long time to implement XR education, there is a learning problem that we set out to solve. A lot of learning has gone online, as you know, and the students phase out after a few minutes. We’ve heard this over and over again. There’s lots of studies looking at high school learning with XR which can help students learn faster, become more confident, make more emotional connections – that’s a great driver for education – and become more focused,” Johansson said while emphasising that the programme is easily accessible and can be applied to any subject.

Executive chairman of Sandals Resorts International Adam Stewart congratulated SCU on the groundbreaking partnership, while sharing that his late father Gordon “Butch” Stewart and Merrick Fray believed in learning from the beginning of the Sandals brand.

“Merrick Fray realised, with my father’s support, the importance of what training could mean to creating a dream that they had. With what I would describe as very humble beginnings, learning became institutionalised in the Sandals organisation from the very early innings. Sandals is a Caribbean company from the Caribbean, of the Caribbean that is determined to show the world that what is from here can stand on the world stage, side by side the biggest and the best,” Stewart said.

He added: “In this life that we live, we have a tendency to fall into the trap to believe that if it comes from somewhere else, wherever that somewhere else may be, it may be in fact better that what we have right here at home. My job has been, over the years, to effectively follow in the footsteps of what was always here. As they say, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Learning has always and will always be at the centre of what is the hallmark of Sandals and Beaches Resorts. One thing that will not change with all the changes taking place around us is that service is executed person to person, smile to smile, and to the degree to which we can crack that code of transferring knowledge to what is now thousands and thousands of Caribbean nationals.”

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who delivered the keynote address, hailed the SCU-EON XR platform as a milestone innovation that has the potential to dramatically reshape the education and training landscape in the tourism sector and other industries.

“This is because its focus on the use of virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended reality will help to fundamentally transform the methods by which we acquire knowledge and engage in training. The SCU-EON XR Platform utilises these technologies to provide a comprehensive and immersive educational experience that contributes to securing the future of tourism. The process of engaging with knowledge via this platform will extend beyond just consumption and will encompass elements of truly value-added educational experience such as active interaction, immersion, creativity, imagination, and practical application,” he said.

“In the current era characterised by rapid technological changes, endeavours such as the SCU-EON XR Platform will guarantee the sustained position of tourism as a global leader in education and training benchmarks. Thus, the goal is not to merely establish a platform; but more importantly, it is to herald the advent of a new paradigm in education transformation,” said Bartlett.

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