Information transparency, privacy concerns, and customers' behavioral intentions regarding AI-powered hospitality robots: A situational awareness perspective

Using the theoretical lens of situational awareness, this research tests two competing models and an intervention to examine the effects of information transparency on customers' privacy concerns and behavioral intentions toward interacting with hospitality robots. An exploratory study and two experiments with artificial intelligence-powered anthropomorphic robots were performed. The exploratory study confirmed that information transparency is lacking in practice. Study 1 revealed that such transparency negatively affects customers' behavioral intentions by increasing their situational awareness, which in turn heightens their privacy concerns and reduces their behavioral intentions. Study 2 further identified privacy assurance as a means of mitigating the adverse impact of information transparency on customers' behavioral intentions; the effect of situational awareness on privacy concerns became non-significant when privacy assurance was provided. This research contributes to the hospitality and tourism literature on technological innovation and offers insights into ethically managing customers' privacy.