Redefining the servicescape in hospitality through technology and artificial intelligence: a conceptual framework

What is it about?

This study creates a new way to think about the servicescape—the physical and social environment where hospitality services happen—by adding technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI). We suggest a framework that combines the physical space, social interactions, and digital elements to improve guest experiences in places like hotels and restaurants. We built this idea by looking at existing research on servicescapes, technology, and how customers feel in hospitality settings. Our new framework builds on an older model by Bitner (1992) and adds AI to control things like lighting and room layouts, create interactive features, and enhance social interactions with guests. It also includes digital and virtual spaces, making services more personal and efficient. However, it considers factors like how ready customers are to use technology and the type of service, while keeping the human touch important. We use a hotel example to show how it works in real life. What’s new here is that we see AI as a key part of the servicescape, not just an extra, offering a fresh way to look at blending physical and digital worlds in hospitality. This helps fill gaps in past research by combining earlier ideas with new technology, giving hotel managers practical tips to use AI while keeping guests emotionally connected. For the future, this framework adds to servicescape theory by bringing in AI, encouraging more studies to test it with real data and see how guests react. It also gives managers a roadmap to use AI to make services personal and efficient, while tackling challenges like balancing technology with human interaction through hybrid approaches.

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