Laird Hamilton, Gabby Reece partner with IBM and Pebble Beach Resorts for new app

Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece partner with IBM and Pebble Beach Resorts in launching new app.

Big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton and professional volleyball player Gabrielle Reece, California’s golden couple, are embarking on a new adventure. The two have partnered with IBM and Pebble Beach Company to launch the Watson app that serves as a tour guide for the resort.

The app is designed to use IBM’s cognitive capabilities to enhance the guest experience at Pebble Beach, essentially giving every visitor a “local” as a tour guide in an app.

It is no surprise that IBM and Pebble Beach hand-picked the couple, who split time between Malibu and Hawaii, to be among the first to try out the app. Hamilton and Reece loved their time at Pebble Beach and said Watson made it incredibly easy to navigate as they ventured around the resort. And yes, they did get a few rounds of golf in during their time at the world-renowned resort.

“The clearest way to define it is having your own concierge with you,” Hamilton told FanSided. “What I experienced was not only the informative aspect of whether you were out on a sight seeing drive, it was giving us all this information which enhanced the experience.”

Most notably Hamilton noted that it allowed him and his wife to make the most of their time.

“Had we not had Watson with us, and not had access to Watson, we wouldn’t have done as many things and they wouldn’t have been as special, because half the time you’d be figuring out how to get there and where to go,” Hamilton said.

“Obviously time is the most valuable thing we have and it seems like normally technology is eating up a lot of our time, but this is one situation where I felt like we were getting time back.”

Pebble Beach is just the first resort to embrace the technology, but this could be a staple of resorts, theme parks and cities in the future.