The future is yesterday: Use of AI-driven facial recognition to enhance value in the travel and tourism industry

This study aims to investigate the role of artificial intelligence (AI) driven facial recognition to enhance a value proposition by influencing different areas of services in the travel and tourism industry. We adopted semi-structured interviews to derive insights from 26 respondents. Thematic analysis reveals the development of four main themes (personalization, data-driven service offering, security and safety, and seamless payments). Further, we mapped the impact of AI- driven facial recognition to enhance value and experience for corporate guests. Findings indicate that AI-based facial recognition can facilitate the travel and tourism industry in understanding travelers’ needs, optimization of service offers, and value-based services, whereas data-driven services can be realized in the form of customized trip planning, email, and calendar integration, and quick bill summarization. This contributes to strengthening the tourism literature through the lens of organizational information processing theory.