Impact of artificial intelligence on the task structure of tourism practitioners

Although artificial intelligence (AI) is extensively applied in tourism, empirical insights into its nuanced impacts on specific work tasks are still emerging. Utilizing Chinese General Social Survey data (2010–2023), this paper examines how AI is associated with different task types and explores the underlying mechanisms. Results suggest that AI is associated with an emerging shift in the occupational composition among tourism practitioners, leaning toward greater routine cognitive task intensity and lower non-routine cognitive task intensity—primarily in hospitality and travel agencies—while no significant effects are observed on manual tasks. Mediation analyses indicate that reduced job autonomy represents a potential pathway associated with this adjustment. Further analysis shows that this constraint on job autonomy exhibits significant nonlinear and dynamic characteristics: it strengthens after AI penetration crosses a specific threshold and demonstrates a staged temporal evolution—transitioning from early assistance to subsequent constraint before stabilizing. We attempt to conceptualize this phenomenon as the “re-routinization” of tourism employment, whereby AI is associated with greater routine cognitive task intensity and lower non-routine cognitive task intensity, with reduced job autonomy emerging as a potential partial pathway.