When It Comes to AI, Precision Is the Key

While AI can work wonders for operations, always strive for an ideal human-tech balance for customer-facing tools.

I was on Facebook recently and came upon a post from a friend who sadly reported that his dog had died. This is a common grief but a deep one. I responded by posting, “Hopefully, you will meet again.”

Unfortunately, Facebook’s default setting includes predictive text or, as some call it, autocomplete. Before I caught it, predictive text had changed the sentence to, “Hopefully, you will meet again soon.”

That is a much different sentiment and a rather nasty one. It was too late to call back the post, so I immediately posted under it that the sentence was completed by Facebook, not me. To my relief, the person who had lost his pet said he understood.

My reaction to Facebook completing my post was, “I didn’t ask for this.” Predictive text is a default setting. I’m not on Facebook enough to have felt it necessary to go into settings and disable it.

This is a small example of the many instances of AI in our lives that have led to a backlash against the technology. Most of the derision is directed at LLMs (large language models), especially by creatives and younger generations, but agentic AI, like predictive text, also earns complaints.

During a few college commencement addresses in May, some graduates booed speakers who spoke approvingly of AI as an industry of promising possibilities. I get it. As useful as AI technology can be, it often seems like a runaway train that’s plowing through all culture and industry. People are worried about losing their jobs or never getting one after graduating college.

“When they work best, AI tools for businesses are like referees at a sporting event: you know they’re doing a good job when you don’t notice them.”

For millions, the same process I encountered on Facebook is playing out on Google Search. As you know, default searches on Google yield an “AI Overview” response before any other listing. Again, nobody asked for this. It’s a default setting, and while Google has always tinkered with their search engine processes, this is the change that has drawn the most disfavor.

Google double-downed on AI and on May 18 announced an overhaul of its search settings to favor the technology. Following the announcement, DuckDuckGo, a privacy-protective search engine, reported a 30% growth of installs in the week after Google’s announcement. DuckDuckGo offers its AI search as an add-on and not a default.

What started as an annoyance snowballed into a grievance, and here we are. The market is responding.

Often an Invisible Hand and a Helpful One

Even AI skeptics need to accept that AI tools can be useful and improve their lives. I think much of the backlash is due to AI technology being a default embed. That's usually not a problem. Many products—email agents, search engines, software, apps, you name it—have AI tools installed, and they mostly work and work well. But the exceptions to that rule, like Google search, can be a frequent reminder that "we didn't ask for this."

When they work best, AI tools for businesses are like referees at a sporting event: you know they’re doing a good job when you don’t notice them.

This editorial has traveled a long way before getting to the heart of this issue of HFB: how AI should work for fitness businesses. As we note in the feature portion, the human element is essential in any person’s fitness journey, and AI needs to be utilized in the connected member journey in a way that doesn't interfere with the person-to-person relationship that is one of the foundations of the fitness industry.

But AI and other technology tools serve their most useful role in the backend. Our piece on payment systems describes just how important it is for fitness facilities to manage revenue, credit card information, neobanks, and other complicated financial transactions.

This is where excellent tech products can become one of your best assets. Agentic AI is well suited to labor‑intensive, repeatable processes, and for many operators, this is an imperative to manage costs. It can excel when a business faces a chargeback or when predictive analytics alerts management that a person is in danger of quitting the gym, allowing managers time to intervene and save the membership.

Despite the benefits of AI, many businesses are finding that some of these tools aren’t worth the investment. Starbucks recently dropped an AI inventory tool after only nine months when the company discovered it had made multiple errors. And Bloomberg reported that Uber burned through its entire 2026 AI budget in only four months, mostly for coding.

As writer Mwangi Enos of TheStreet put it: “That gap between measurable individual productivity and uncertain organizational outcomes is the unexpected problem the AI boom is producing.”

With all of the important topics associated with technology, one issue can’t do it justice. In the future, HFB will have much more on biometrics, data control, and why the industry needs to take control of AI processes and information flow before it’s forced upon them.

I will end by informing the reader that AI did not write this editorial. And I hope we meet again—soon.

Contributors

Patricia Amend

Patricia Amend, who holds an M.A. in journalism from New York University, has been a writer, editor and author for 30+ years. She took up long-distance running, which piqued her interest in healthy lifestyles and the fitness industry. She also specializes in financial health—small business and personal finance.

In addition to writing some 600 articles about the industry—mostly for HFA—Ms. Amend served as Executive Editor of Health & Fitness Business (formerly Club Business International) and Managing Editor of Club Business Europe, and she produced research reports, newsletters, program guides, and marketing materials for HFA.

Other stories have appeared in Club Industry, ACE Fitness Matters, USA Today, Inc. Magazine, Money.com, AARP.org, and AARP The Magazine. One of her books, The 30-Minute Fitness Solution, published by Harvard University Press, received an Award of Excellence from the American Medical Writers Association. She can be reached at patriciaamend2@gmail.com.

Jon Feld

Jon Feld has been writing for four decades. He has a diverse and varied background: editor for Club Industry magazine, publications director at Boston University, director of Content Development at Inc. Magazine, media business owner, and more. One thread has been a near constant for most of his career: He’s been writing for HFA since 1987. He can be contacted at jfeld@oncoremedia.net.

Julie King

Julie King is a freelance writer with more than 30 years of experience in the fitness industry. She’s worked as a content creator, personal trainer, group fitness instructor, fitness director, fitness/wellness coordinator, and health club manager. Since 2002, King has been a contributing writer to Health & Fitness Business. Her work has also appeared in the Journal on Active Aging, Club Solutions, Recreation Management, Campus Recreation, National Fitness Trade Journal, and Fitness Management. Holding a B.S. in journalism and an M.S. in kinesiology, King was a contributing author to The Fitness Handbook, published by Stairmaster Sports/Medical Products. She can be contacted at julie.king1@comcast.net.

Health & Fitness Business is a publication of

Health & Fitness Business (HFB) is the leading health and fitness industry publication. Published monthly by the Health & Fitness Association (HFA) and distributed free to the industry, HFB offers analysis of the opportunities, challenges, issues, and news that impact the industry.

Subscribe | Advertise | Past Issues | FAQs

70 Fargo Street, Boston, MA 02210

1627 Street NW, Suite 1210, Washington DC, 20006