High-tech hospitality: Ph.D. student Abraham Terrah offers insight into AI’s growing role in hotel service
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Media Contact: Hallie Hart | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-1050 | hallie.hart@okstate.edu
After a long day of navigating noisy airports and congested highways, an exhausted traveler enters a hotel room with expectations of peace and comfort.
Then, an unexpected voice greets the guest, and it doesn’t belong to a person.
No, this isn’t the beginning of a fantastical ghost story. As hotels implement artificial intelligence-powered technologies such as voice assistants, the aforementioned scene is a growing reality. While some guests welcome the convenience of these in-room innovations, others have the unsettling feeling that the devices are intruding upon privacy.
Abraham Terrah, a Spears School of Business Ph.D. student, can offer insights into the novel appeal and ethical issues surrounding the use of AI in hospitality and tourism. From Alexa-like voice assistants to facial recognition-activated room keys to robot bartenders, Terrah realizes AI is inevitably shaping the industry’s future. His research explores ways these innovations can enhance hotelier and customer experiences while easing concerns.
Terrah, who grew up primarily in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, often played with computer games and popular gadgets as a curious kid. But he didn’t develop his tech-focused research niche until the COVID-19 pandemic hit while he was pursuing his master’s degree in hospitality management at the University of South Florida. Although it was a difficult time to study and work in hospitality, he noticed how AI powered the contactless services that allowed a floundering industry to bounce back.
“It was like watching the future arrive early,” Terrah said. “Definitely, that was my spark. I realized that yes, if AI can help the whole industry survive this crisis that was the pandemic, maybe it can help us thrive in the future.”
Terrah wrote his master’s thesis on factors that drive hotel guests to use AI technologies, using the cutting-edge Flyzoo Hotel in China as an example. His paper, titled “Determinants of users’ intentions to use AI enabled technological innovations in hotel settings: A hybrid approach using PLS-SEM and fsQCA,” received publication this year in Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Research.
In this study, Terrah identified novelty and lifestyle compatibility as key factors that draw people toward AI innovations, impacting customer perceptions of usefulness and ease of use. However, his findings indicate a technology doesn’t need to be particularly useful for a guest to want to engage with it.
People are curious about AI. If they’re prompting ChatGPT to write silly skits or asking Google Gemini to create absurd images, then they might also want to tinker with the latest technologies in hotels simply because they’re new and fun.
“Usually, the traditional view will say for any technology, its usefulness — what is the utilitarian benefit? — is going to drive adoption,” Terrah said. “But it appears that in a hospitality setting like a hotel, the experience element can override the practical functionality for some user groups.”
Since his initial AI research at USF, Terrah has delved deeper into this field at OSU as a business administration doctoral student with a hospitality and tourism management option. OSU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management introduces students to technologies that include robots and big data analytics.
“The HTM program focuses on preparing students for the evolving needs of the hospitality industry, emphasizing technology and innovative practices shaping the future,” said Dr. Cortney Norris, Terrah’s faculty advisor. “Abraham's expertise in the intersection of technology and hospitality positions him as a valuable researcher for analyzing and predicting consumer behavior and preferences with these emerging technologies.”
Alongside HTM professor Yeasun Chung and marketing Ph.D. student Mo Pasham, Terrah is currently researching a concept he describes as the personalization-privacy paradox. Technologies such as voice assistants conveniently set alarms and adjust hotel room temperatures based on simple spoken cues, but are the ease and accessibility worth the loss of privacy?
“Those technologies need information because they want to provide good services to people,” Terrah said. “And then I’m thinking, ‘Do people actually trust those technologies?’ I’m not sure about it. So, how much information are you willing to give up to have such personalized services?”
Terrah remembers he was troubled by the 2018 news of a massive Marriott International data breach, which put the personal information of as many as half a billion guests at risk, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Hotels are investing in high-tech innovations, Terrah said, but rarely devote enough resources toward preventing security breaches. Add in devices such as voice assistants that “listen” to in-room conversations, and more personal information becomes vulnerable.
Terrah’s envisioned solution revolves around transparency and informed consent. Think of a website that allows visitors to accept or decline cookies — blocks of data that save information. Terrah’s ideal system would similarly allow hotel patrons to opt in or opt out from using the AI services, but it would provide greater detail, clearly listing every AI technology and its capabilities in the hotel.
During the check-in process, whether on paper or on a digital screen, guests could select specific AI functions to use and others not to use. This way, no one would be caught off guard by an automated welcome from a voice assistant upon entering a room. Terrah said guests should also be able to know what forms of data the AI devices are collecting, how the hotel protects their information and which, if any, third parties can access it.
“This can be interesting in maintaining and building more trust between the hoteliers that use voice assistants and customers,” Terrah said.
With trust, Terrah sees vast potential for innovative uses of AI in hospitality — he’s also conducting research about robots in the industry. Although it’s easy for science fiction fans to fear robots replacing human workers, Terrah doesn’t describe the AI revolution in this dramatic way, instead saying the technologies are “complements,” not substitutes, for humans. For example, a robot might carry plates between a kitchen and a dining room, but a human server greets diners and chats with them about the daily specials, still providing the personal warmth guests appreciate.
Although tourists view hotels as getaways from daily life, the hospitality experience is a microcosm of the outside world. This means travelers expect to find modern technology in their rooms. If TVs don’t have YouTube or Netflix capabilities, Terrah said, then guests probably won’t be happy.
Both of those platforms use AI algorithms, revealing how AI has already ingrained itself into travelers’ lifestyles. Hospitality and tourism are adapting to reflect this societal shift, and as an aspiring university professor expected to receive his Ph.D. in May 2026, Terrah wants to teach HTM students how to wisely work with these technologies.
“The industry is turning to being very tech-based,” Terrah said. “We are (more than) 20 years deep into the 21st century, so in-room technology is what is going to make a difference.”