GeoAI and Spatial Justice in Leisure: Enhancing Spatial Equity or Reinforcing Spatial Inequity?

The growing integration of geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) into leisure planning and governance is reshaping how recreational spaces are analyzed, managed, and experienced. While GeoAI offers opportunities to identify underserved communities, model accessibility, and support evidence-based decision-making, its implications for spatial justice remain contested. Drawing on spatial justice theory, critical GIS, and scholarship on algorithmic governance and data justice, this commentary conceptualizes GeoAI as a double-edged socio-technical infrastructure. GeoAI may enhance spatial equity by revealing leisure inequalities, improving accessibility analyses, and supporting responsive and sustainable planning. Yet, it may also reinforce spatial inequities through biased spatial data, uneven digital representation, and surveillance-oriented governance. This commentary argues that GeoAI is neither inherently emancipatory nor oppressive. Rather, its implications for spatial equity are shaped by how algorithmic systems are designed, governed, and socially embedded. A “Just GeoAI” framework grounded in transparency, participation, and ethical governance is proposed for equitable leisure futures globally.