The Next Frontier of Service: A Data-Driven Synthesis for Human-Centered Digital Transformation in AI-Enabled Hospitality

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-624-1_15How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; Authenticity; Service Encounter; Algorithm; Customer Experience; Sustainable Service Innovation

Abstract

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into hospitality and tourism has accelerated digital transformation, reshaping how organizations innovate, deliver services, and co-create experiences. Despite growing scholarly attention, research on AI’s role in hospitality service encounters remains fragmented, with limited synthesis of conceptual, methodological, and thematic developments. This study addresses this gap through a systematic literature review that combines bibliometric mapping and text-mining analysis to identify emerging trends, key themes, and research frontiers in AI-driven hospitality. Following PRISMA protocols, 487 peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2024 were analyzed using co-occurrence networks, clustering algorithms, and TF-IDF keyword extraction. Six major thematic clusters were identified, representing focal areas such as service automation, customer experience, cultural adaptation, chatbot communication, and human–robot collaboration. The findings reveal a paradigm shift in the field’s intellectual structure, moving decisively from efficiency and automation to a human-centric focus on empathy, ethics, and affective intelligence. This study contributes a holistic synthesis of the field, bridging technological and human-centered perspectives in hospitality. By mapping intellectual structures and conceptual gaps, it provides a foundation for future research agendas that align AI adoption with empathy, authenticity, and sustainable service design.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Duy Yen Linh Nguyen
AU  - Duy Dang Pham Thien
AU  - Phuc Huynh Nguyen Hoang
AU  - Thi-Linh Ho
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/06
TI  - The Next Frontier of Service: A Data-Driven Synthesis for Human-Centered Digital Transformation in AI-Enabled Hospitality
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Economics and Finance in the Digital Business Transformation (INCOSEF 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 191
EP  - 212
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-624-1_15
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-624-1_15
ID  - Nguyen2026
ER  -