This is an excerpt from VOLT, our premium trends platform. In this edition, we explore ‘Sweat Equity’ — the growing desire among travellers to intentionally embrace friction, restoring a sense of balance and reward as AI-driven convenience comes under scrutiny. Subscribe now to read the full industry deep dive.

What happens when convenience is no longer convenient, when the helping hand becomes a burden or even a curse? For more than a decade, convenience has been the dominant consumer promise. It has meant summoning an Uber for a ride or a meal, accessing a near-infinite marketplace with next-day delivery via Amazon, or booking an entire holiday through Booking.com. Customer journeys have been compressed into a single swipe as "friction" was banished to the dictionary of dirty words.

But increasingly, travellers are embracing Sweat Equity - pushing back against the limitless convenience and seeking out experiences and trips that both challenge and reward. Travel, at least historically, has always delivered on this: navigating language barriers, getting lost and finding your way again, deciphering unfamiliar social norms, adapting to new sensory environments, and surrendering control to chance encounters and delayed plans. These moments of effort and uncertainty are precisely what make travel memorable and meaningful. 

The idea is beautifully rendered in the work of Refik Anadol, particularly his Inner Portrait series commissioned by Turkish Airlines. The project recorded brainwave data from people who had never travelled before and again after their first trip, transmuting those neurological changes into immersive digital artworks. The works are a reminder that travel does not just alter perspectives. It alters the brain itself, forging new neural pathways. 

Now, friction is poised for a comeback as generative AI enters the frame and calls the benefits of convenience into question. Increasingly, natural, conversational interfaces enabled by the likes of ChatGPT are not only offloading practical tasks but cognitive ones too. Critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and even the emotional effort of conversing with another human are quietly being outsourced. As generative AI becomes silently embedded into everyday UX, from Google Docs to WhatsApp, the brain's challenge-and-reward system risks a slow, almost imperceptible decline.

Sociologists are already observing a shift towards what is known as "cognitive miserliness," the tendency to seek the least effortful solution to any problem. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to Dr Gerlich, a professor at SBS Swiss Business School, quoted in The Economist. As AI-reliant individuals find it harder to think critically, their brains may become more miserly, leading to yet more offloading.

In her New York Times bestselling book Dopamine Nation, Dr Anna Lembke explains...

To explore the full trend — including insights from G Adventures, an interview with the author of Why We Travel Ash Bhardwaj and key data points illustrating the shift — subscribe to VOLT. Annual subscribers receive twice monthly trend reports, a library of 200+ more, plus direct support from Globetrender's in-house trend strategists.