Exploring User Acceptance, Experience and Satisfaction towards Chatbots in An Online Travel Agency (OTA)

Abstract

Progressive technological advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as Chatbots is changing the frontline services within the hospitality and tourism industry. Known as an automated program that mimics human interaction both via chat or voice assistant with the customers, chatbots can be found in numerous service-based websites and mobile apps including Online Travel Agency (OTA). User experience is a critical factor in the success of chatbots for customer service. Despite the growing number of hospitality and tourism firms adopting chatbots to deliver customer care, little attention has been paid towards chatbot users' reactions, particularly from the OTA standpoint. Underpinning the technology acceptance model (TAM), this paper proposed an examination of OTA chatbots' antecedents covering perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived playfulness (PP) and perceived usefulness (PU); towards users' experience and satisfaction. The outcome of this study would bring valuable insights to both academicians and practitioners as more and more hospitality and tourism services are evolving rapidly within the digital business environment.