Unpacking the impact of AI vs. human-generated review summary on hotel booking intentions

This study investigates the impacts of the source of hotel review summary (AI-generated vs. human-generated) on customers' trust, information processing, and booking intentions through three scenario-based experiments involving 764 participants. Study 1 reveals that human-generated (vs. AI-generated) summaries lead to a higher level of trust, which boosts booking intentions. Study 2 finds that with negative reviews, there's no significant difference in booking intentions between AI and human-generated summaries, suggesting trust isn't the sole mediator. Study 3 proposes that information processing effort is a potential mediator. The findings confirm that when review valence is negative, customers invest more cognitive effort when reading AI-generated compared to human-generated summaries. The results challenge the assumption that human-generated reviews are inherently more persuasive. This research addresses critical gaps in understanding AI-generated content's impact on customer behavior in the hospitality industry, offering both theoretical contributions and practical insights for integrating AI technologies in customer communication strategies.