Wednesday November 6, 2024
Media Contact: Hallie Hart | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-1050 | hallie.hart@okstate.edu
After a long day of navigating noisy airports and congested highways, an exhausted traveler enters a hotel room with expectations of peace and comfort.
Then, an unexpected voice greets the guest, and it belongs to no one.
No, this is not the start of a fantastic ghost story. As hotels implement artificial intelligence-based technologies such as voice assistants, the aforementioned scene is becoming a growing reality. While some guests enjoy the convenience of these in-room innovations, others have the unsettling feeling that the devices are encroaching on their privacy.
Abraham Terrah, Ph.D. at Spears School of Business. student, can offer insight into the novel appeal and ethical questions surrounding the use of AI in hospitality and tourism. From Alexa-like voice assistants to facial recognition-enabled room keys to robot bartenders, Terrah realizes that AI is inevitably shaping the future of the industry. His research explores how these innovations can improve the experience for hoteliers and guests while alleviating concerns.
Terrah, who grew up primarily in Burkina Faso, West Africa, often played with popular computer games and gadgets when he was a curious child. But he didn’t develop his technology-focused research niche until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, while he was pursuing his master’s degree in hospitality management at the University of South Florida. Although it was a difficult time to study and work in hospitality, he noticed how AI was powering contactless services that allowed a struggling industry to bounce back.
“It was like seeing the future come early,” Terrah said. “Definitely, that was my spark. I realized that yes, if AI can help the entire industry survive this pandemic crisis, maybe it can help us thrive in the future.
Terrah wrote her master’s thesis on the factors that drive hotel guests to use AI technologies, using the cutting-edge Flyzoo hotel in China as an example. His paper, titled “Determinants of User Intentions to Use AI-Enabled Technological Innovations in Hospitality Environments: A Hybrid Approach Using PLS-SEM and fsQCA,” was published this year in Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Research.
In this study, Terrah identified novelty and lifestyle fit as key factors that attract people to AI innovations, impacting customer perceptions of usefulness and ease of use. However, its findings indicate that a technology does not need to be particularly useful for a customer to want to engage with it.
People are curious about AI. If they get ChatGPT to write silly skits or ask Google Gemini to create absurd images, they might also want to tinker with the latest technology in hotels just because it’s new and fun.
“Usually the traditional view asks, for any technology, its utility: what is its utilitarian benefit? – will drive adoption,” Terrah said. “But it seems that in a hospitality setting like a hotel, the experience element may outweigh practical functionality for certain user groups.”
Since his early research in AI at USF, Terrah has delved deeper into this area at OSU as a doctoral student in business administration with a hospitality and tourism management option. OSU School of Hospitality and Tourism Management introduces students to technologies that include robots and big data analysis.
“The HTM program aims to prepare students for the changing needs of the hospitality industry, with a focus on technology and innovative practices that shape the future,” said Dr. Cortney Norris, Terrah’s academic advisor. “Abraham’s expertise at the intersection of technology and hospitality positions him as a valuable researcher to analyze and predict consumer behavior and preferences with these emerging technologies.”
Alongside HTM Professor Yeasun Chung and Marketing Ph.D. Mo Pasham, Terrah is currently investigating a concept he describes as the personalization-privacy paradox. Technologies like voice assistants easily set alarms and adjust hotel room temperatures based on simple voice cues, but are the ease and accessibility worth the loss of privacy?
“These technologies need information because they want to provide good services to people,” Terrah said. “And then I wonder, ‘Do people really trust these technologies?’ I’m not sure. So how much information are you willing to give up to benefit from such personalized services? »
Terrah recalls being troubled by news in 2018 of a massive Marriott International data breach, which put the personal information of half a billion guests at risk, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Hotels invest in high-tech innovations, Terrah said, but rarely devote enough resources to preventing security breaches. Add devices like voice assistants that “listen” to conversations in the room, and more personal information becomes vulnerable.
The solution envisaged by Terrah revolves around transparency and informed consent. Consider a website that allows visitors to accept or decline cookies, blocks of data that record information. Terrah’s ideal system would also allow hotel guests to opt in or out of using AI services, but it would provide more detail, clearly listing each AI technology and its capabilities in the hotel.
During the registration process, whether on paper or digital screen, customers could select specific AI functions to use and others not to use. This way, no one would be caught off guard by an automated welcome message from a voice assistant upon entering a room. Terrah said guests should also be able to know what forms of data AI devices collect, how the hotel protects their information and which third parties, if any, can access it.
“This can be interesting to maintain and build trust between hoteliers who use voice assistants and guests,” Terrah said.
Confidently, Terrah sees vast potential for innovative uses of AI in hospitality: he is also conducting research on robots in the industry. While it’s easy for science fiction fans to fear that robots will replace human workers, Terrah doesn’t describe the AI revolution as dramatically, instead arguing that the technologies are “complements” and not substitutes for humans. For example, a robot might carry plates between a kitchen and a dining room, but a human server greets diners and discusses the day’s specials with them, while providing the personal warmth that customers appreciate.
Although tourists view hotels as escapes from everyday life, the experience of hospitality is a microcosm of the outside world. This means travelers expect to find modern technology in their rooms. If TVs don’t have YouTube or Netflix capabilities, Terrah said, guests likely won’t be happy.
Both platforms use AI algorithms, revealing the extent to which AI has already become ingrained in travelers’ lifestyles. Hospitality and tourism are adapting to reflect this societal change, and as an aspiring university professor, he expects to receive his Ph.D. in May 2026, Terrah wants to teach HTM students how to work wisely with these technologies.
“The industry is becoming very technology-driven,” Terrah said. “We are (more than) 20 years into the 21st century, so it’s the technology in the rooms that will make the difference.”
