Consumers’ adoption of artificial intelligence and robotics in hospitality and tourism sector: literature review and future research agenda

Purpose The purpose of this study, a current systematic literature review, is to synthesize the extant literature on consumers’ adoption of artificial intelligence and robotics (AIR) in the context of the hospitality and tourism sector (HATS) to gain a comprehensive understanding of it. This study also outlines insights for academia, practitioners, AI marketers, developers, designers and policymakers. Design/methodology/approach This study used a content analysis approach to conduct a systematic literature review for the period of 10 years (2011–2020) of the various published studies themed around consumer’s adoption of AIR in HATS. Findings The synthesis draws upon various factors affecting the adoption of AIR, such as individual factors, service factors, technical and performance factors, social and cultural factors and infrastructural factors. Additionally, the authors identified four major barriers, namely, psychological, social, financial, technical and functional that hinder the consumer’s adoption of artificial intelligence and robots in the hospitality and tourism industry. Originality/value To the best of the author’s/authors’ knowledge, this study is a first attempt to synthesize the factors that drive consumers’ adoption of artificial intelligence and robots in the hospitality and tourism industry. The present work also advances the tourism and consumer behavior literature by offering an integrated antecedent-outcome framework. Visual abstract Figure 2 The objective of the current systematic literature review is to synthesize the extant literature on consumer’s adoption of artificial intelligence and robotics (AIR) in the context of the hospitality and tourism sector (HATS) to gain a comprehensive understanding of it. For that purpose, authors conducted content analysis of extant literature on consumer’s adoption of AIR in HATS from 2011 to 2020. Authors presented an integrated antecedent outcome framework of the factors that drive consumer’s adoption of artificial intelligence and robots in the hospitality and tourism industry.