Content area
Full text
1. Introduction
Technology is a game-changer for the travel and tourism industry. The innovative technologies such as chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are changing the way the tourism industry presently operates (Tussyadiah, 2020; Bowen and Morosan, 2018). AI-based systems are not just triggering the service and process automation, but they are also being used for direct interaction with customers in various frontline services (Van Doorn et al., 2017). Currently, more than 14% of airlines worldwide are using chatbots for various functions of airlines and it is predicted to reach 68% by 2020. Globally, more than 42% of airports are planning to adopt chatbot technology (Ghosh and Chakravarty, 2018). The global chatbot market is more than US$190m and is predicted to increase (Sweezey, 2018).
The chatbot is a computer, programmed to emulate dialogues with humans using voice methods or natural language text (xcubelabs, 2017, p. 1). AI-based chatbots are defined as: “Chatbot is an acronym for chat robot and it establishes communication with humans utilizing AI technology and underlying computer program inbuilt in it” (Ramachandran, 2018, p. 1). As per Adam et al. (2020, p. 2), “AI-based Chatbot is a particular type of chatbot that is designed for turn-by-turn conversations with human users based on the textual input.” An AI-based chatbot (hereafter simply “chatbots”) is an integration of intelligent backend systems and an interface (Guzman and Pathania, 2016). The chatbot interface access may happen through unique devices such as Google, Siri and Amazon Alexa, computers and smartphones. The interaction with a chatbot can occur through textual or vocal format. Chatbot interactions are supported by intelligent backend systems, which facilitate the interaction process with end-users (Sheehan, 2018). The increasing adoption and use of digital intelligent assistants and chatbots are offering conversational system capabilities for sales, marketing and customer service purposes. Because of machine learning and intelligent software algorithms, they provide human-like conversations that are more engaging to the customers (SAP, 2018). The earlier versions of chatbots were simple response platforms, whereas the current AI-based chatbots are much more sophisticated, powerful and capable, increasing the human–technology interaction (Rajan and Saffiotti, 2017). In the hospitality and tourism industry, chatbots are used for travel planning, customer booking, customer support and providing recommendations and suggestions to the customer...