AI-Driven Leadership in Tourism: Boon or Burden?

In this new era, the role of AI is transforming every industry; this new research reveals that AI-powered leadership approaches and processes can revolutionize employee related systems and monitor their performance and engagement in the tourism and hospitality sectors.

However, on the other hand, the tourism and hospitality industry stands at a technological crossroads, with AI reshaping traditional leadership approaches and performance management systems. The present research is a groundbreaking study on 953 international hospitality employees and presents their views of AI-driven servant leadership roles and approaches to improve workplace dynamics and business outcomes.

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The present study demonstrates that AIdriven servant leadership approaches significantly influence employee performance in multiple ways. It helps improve job resources, impacting employee engagement and performance. Both these factors play a critical role in overall organizational success.

The present findings indicate the significant role of AI-based leadership approaches in improving employees’ physical, mental, and social experience, enhancing their decision-making as it provides real-time feedback to improve employee relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and the workplace.

On the other hand, this research also shows the negative impact of AI-driven leadership strategies on employees who are already performing well as they thrive in autonomous decision-making space and appreciate flexibility in learning and the workplace environment.

AI may hinder them rather than help them. The present study suggests adopting AI-driven leadership strategies to improve job-related resources, such as tools or techniques, to improve the recruitment or development process. Such systems help firms closely monitor employee engagement levels and performance.

Group Discussion Topics

Firms should focus on providing personalized employee support systems using AI-based services. Moreover, the study suggests that the AI level interventions should be monitored and adjusted based on employee engagement levels. Firms should implement AI-based tools gradually and reduce AI intervention once high engagement is observed to provide more flexibility to employees.

There is a need for regular assessment of AI leadership effectiveness. Firms should address employee concerns about AI integration and maintain transparency in AI implementation to maximize the benefits of AI-driven leadership approaches. Such systems should be used to enhance the performance of human leadership rather than replace them. Regular feedback on the integration should be collected to find the right balance: using AI to enhance job resources and support employees to excel.

However, the firms must understand and recognize when to step back and let human dynamics take precedence.  Such balance is crucial to better positioned AI servant leadership approaches to deliver exceptional guest experience while maintaining high employee engagement and performance levels.

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The full research paper can be accessed here

Radic, A., Singh, S., Singh, N., Ariza-Montes, A., Calder, G., & Han, H. (2024). The good shepherd: linking artificial intelligence (AI)-driven servant leadership (SEL) and job demands-resources (JD-R) theory in tourism and hospitality. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-06-2024-0628

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