Consumers’ reasons and perceived value co-creation of using artificial intelligence-enabled travel service agents

Abstract This study analyzes the relationship between consumers’ values and their reasons for and against perceived value co-creation as well as their behavioral intentions related to using artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled travel service agents (chatbots). Structual equation modeling (SEM) results mainly support the hypotheses driven by the behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) but presume that one means lead to usage intentions of AI-enabled travel service agents. Given the interdependency and complexity of consumers’ reasoning processes, in addition, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is conducted to provide more insight into this unexplored topic presuming multiple different trajectories. The complex solutions of fsQCA indicate that four different combinations sufficiently explain consumers’ intent to use AI-enabled travel service agents. Overall, the findings shed light on a new area of consumer behavior and the acceptance of AI-enabled service encounters.