Two studies demonstrate the impact of cognitive load and source credibility on GenAI recommendations in the hospitality industry, suggesting optimal presentation for consumers.
Generative AI (GenAI) is revolutionizing the hospitality industry by offering recommendations via online travel agencies (OTA) to enhance customers’ decision making. These suggestions’ perceived usefulness depends on both the content and how it is presented. We draw on cognitive load and source credibility theories in performing two studies to explore information structure and sources. We specifically examine how presentation formats (structured vs. unstructured), together with source disclosure (disclosed vs. undisclosed; Study 1) and source origin (internal vs. external; Study 2), influence GenAI recommendations’ perceived usefulness and consumers’ reuse intentions. Results indicate that structured formats reduce cognitive load, with effects varying by source disclosure. Undisclosed or external sources amplify the positive impact of structure, whereas internal sources substitute the structured format’s benefits with its inherent credibility. Our study extends cognitive load and source credibility theories to digital decision-making contexts while offering OTAs practical insights for designing more effective GenAI recommendations.
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Park et al. (2025) studied this question.
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