Abstract
This case focuses on voice assistant technology, one of the AI-based service technologies in hotels, which transforms service employees’ work environments and hotel guests’ experiences. The application of AI-based technologies in the service industry has been widespread and provided various advantages to customers and organizations. However, at the same time, the adoption accompanied technology challenges that influenced successful operation and management. Drawing from the previous literature and the current issues related to voice assistant technology, this case study presents the four potential challenges that service employees may encounter in the use of the technology in the lodging industry with imaginary scenarios considering each situation so that the organizers can fully take advantage of voice assistant technology by avoiding the threats: (1) Privacy concern; (2) Ease of use; (3) Efficiency; and (4) Customer service.
Keywords
Introduction
Rule of thumb for UX: More options, more problems. —Scott Belsky, Adobe’s Chief Product Officer.
Mr. Belsky’s words ring true when reading the implications of recent scholarly studies about the fast-paced adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) supported technologies in the service industry and the challenges with associated user experience (UX) for both the consumers and the employees (Astuti et al., 2024; Zhang & Qi, 2019).
Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as “a system’s ability to interpret external data correctly, to learn from such data, and to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2019, p. 17). As a buzzword of recent years, AI has received worldwide attention from scholars and practitioners and has become an essential element influencing industry transformation and economic growth.
Another buzzword often examined in human computer interaction studies is User Experience (UX). The International Organization for Standardization (2010) defined the User Experience as “Person’s perceptions and responses resulting from the use and/or anticipated use of a product, system or service.” In other words, UX focuses on an individual’s perception and reactions encompassing pre-, during, and post-usage certain products, systems, services, and objects (Law et al., 2009; Stumpp et al., 2019). It contains not merely their direct experience with the system/product but also how it works with the comprehensive workflow. While usability, a subset of UX, is concerned with how effective and performing it is for an individual to achieve goals using a system/product, the entire experience is regarded as part of the UX regardless of whether some features are directly controlled by product/system or are only connected to it (Kaplan, 2024; ProductPlan, n.d.). In turn, the overall UX incorporates all the interactions around customers and organizations. In the lodging industry, delivering exceptional customer experiences centers on the nature of hospitality. Technology, in modern society, has become an invaluable partner by collaborating with human service employees. Beyond simply supplementing automation, using technologies increases employee productivity and job satisfaction and eventually offers excellent guest experiences (Carrier, 2024). Thus, it can be demonstrated that various technology amenities employed in hotel properties, including mobile keys, voice technology, chatbot, and in-room tablets, are significantly associated with service employees’ UX toward their guest experience.
Artificial intelligence (AI) gives shape to people’s long-cherished dreams in everyday life, both in business and at home. With its acceptance of human-like behavior and performance, such as learning, cognition, sensing, reasoning, decision-making processes, acting, and adaptation (Huang et al., 2021; Shrungare, 2023), AI system assists humans by managing services in commercial environments (Ameen et al., 2020; Pillai et al., 2020; Potnuru, 2019; Suciu et al., 2020), education (Alam, 2021; Hwang & Chien, 2022; Ouyang et al., 2022), health care (Asan et al., 2020; Kumar et al., 2020; Lee & Yoon, 2021; Markus et al., 2021), and the hospitality and tourism industry (Alsetoohy et al., 2019; Cain et al., 2019; Chiang & Trimi, 2020; Choi et al., 2022; Hoang & Tran, 2022).
According to PwC (2018), AI works largely in two distinct ways: collaborating with human employees (i.e., assisted intelligence and augmented intelligence) and working without humans (i.e., automation and autonomous intelligence; PwC, 2018). Intelligent service agents have been recognized for their advantages in the hospitality and service industry sector. From a service provider perspective, AI-based technology influences efficiency, profitability, and improved productivity. Moreover, customers receive convenient service and personalized experiences from the technology (Samara et al., 2020). As a result, the hotel industry is keeping up with hiring AI agents along with human employees. For example, hotel managers prefer to place robot agents to perform dangerous, repetitive, and dull tasks, while human agents are employed for tasks needed sociability and emotional intelligence (Ivanov et al., 2020). Furthermore, a recent survey for the World Economic Forum found that 60% of respondents expect AI-based services and products will completely transform our daily lives in the near future (Myers, 2022).
In recent years, many worldwide hotel chains have adopted voice assistant technology, a type of AI-based service technology, in their guest rooms, so-called “virtual concierges” (Walson, 2023). By adopting voice assistants in hotel rooms, hotels can offer numerous advantages to their guests for convenient services. Voice assistants, in particular, help with the labor shortage that the hospitality industry has suffered greatly after the COVID-19 pandemic by responding to frequently asked questions (Zhang, 2023). In 2020, Google announced the release of the hospitality solution technology that enables customers to experience more enjoyable travel experiences. A Google Nest Hub was installed in guest rooms partnered with Google to offer this technology, such as Hotel Zena in Washington, DC, Fairmont Princess in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Village hotels in the U.K. (Romano, 2020). By using this technology, the hotel guests are able to order room service, request information about the property, and operate the lights in the room. Mountain Laurel Chalets, a cabin rental company, also installed voice assistants in its properties to assist their guests (Walson, 2023). The company’s CEO mentioned that they can enhance the residences and personalize their hospitality brand using technology.
While a wave of AI-based technologies has continued to flood the hospitality and tourism industry within the past few years, it has also aroused new and unanticipated problems. For example, AI employment can cause operational issues due to outdated hotel systems, resulting in frustration for employees and customers (Bulchand-Gidumal et al., 2024; Thiebes et al., 2021). Likewise, implementing AI systems is required to successfully train service employees to operate teams, such as front desk and housekeeping departments. In turn, this may be both a costly and time-consuming process affecting the business (Karagiannis, 2024; Malone, 2024). In a similar vein, voice assistant technology also presents several challenges that require careful consideration, including privacy concerns, ethical considerations, and technological limitations, although the value of voice assistant technology was considered to increase as the lodging industry prepare for a shortage of employment.
Problem Statement
Intelligent AI-based technologies, including voice assistant technology, are becoming commonplace in the lodging industry. Notably, this advanced technology generates both fascinating and unfavorable effects simultaneously. Hospitality scholars have widely examined customer experiences using voice assistant technology in a variety of aspects, including guest-voice assistant interactions (Buhalis & Moldavska, 2022), relationship between customer perceptions and the brand of voice assistant moderated by construal level and hotel scale (Cai et al., 2022), information privacy concerns (Kim et al., 2024), and the application in different types of accommodations, such as upscale hotels (Pelet et al., 2021) and Airbnb (Cao et al., 2022). However, there is a lack of research focusing on service employees using technologies although the employees are deeply linked to the use of technologies in their workplace to offer diversified services to customers. While technologies have remarkably developed and have enormous value to survive in the competitive lodging industry, there is no doubt that the hospitality business is a human-centric industry where human interactions are valued and revolve around (Tai et al., 2021). Thus, from a management perspective, effective interaction between human employees and AI-based service agents remains a hot topic (Pelau et al., 2021). With the rapid growth of information and communication technology, it is crucial to identify service employees’ perspectives to manage human resources along with practical technology applications successfully. By reflecting on potential unintended consequences, organizations should consider how to improve the user experience for their employees and not just their customers.
Case Study Objectives
This case study aims to provide an overview of how voice assistant technology, an AI-supported technology, is being integrated in hotels. It also intends to shed light on the unintended consequences of increasingly popular technology in the context of ever-evolving hotel digital services. Since the capability of voice assistants can be used for a variety of purposes, such as optimizing hotel management and operations, improving customer experience and personalization, and providing sustainable practices (Karagiannis, 2024), it is vital to investigate the present and future of the technology. Specifically, it points out the potential challenges employees could face due to the use of voice assistant technology in the lodging industry. AI-supported technologies have become an essential part of the travel experience, surpassing their role in daily life. This indicates that accommodating voice assistants in hotel rooms is more than simply a passing fad. This case study offers an opportunity to discuss the complexity of integrating emerging technologies in the workplace. After reading the case study and discussing the issue, students will be able to (1) understand the current technology issues in human resource management and hospitality operation management, (2) broaden comprehensive knowledge of AI-supported technologies in the service industry, (3) analyze diverse difficulties of service employees toward voice assistant technology in the hospitality industry, and (4) cultivate critical thinking to prevent potential issues that employees may be faced with and improve service employees’ capability.
Voice Assistant Technology
Voice assistant technology or smart speaker devices, such as Siri (Apple), Alexa (Amazon), Google Home or Google Assistant (Google), or Cortana (Microsoft), are household names to many consumers. They are described as “value-creating connected and synchronized smart objects or devices that interact with one another, sense the environment, and guide and control their functions autonomously” (Roy et al., 2017, p. 258). Smart voice assistants stand for “intelligent software that responds to voice commands and can run on any device, including smartphones, speakers, desktop/laptop computers, tablets, wearables, gaming consoles, TV consoles, virtual reality (VR) headsets, cars, and internet of things (IoT) devices” (Insider Intelligence, 2023). According to the Voice Assistant consumer adoption report, voice assistant device users are continuously increasing in the U.S., and one in five homes possess the device (Voicebot.AI, 2018). Moreover, specialists predicted that the use of voice assistant technology would continue to rise and run into the estimated half of the U.S. adult population (Insider Intelligence, 2023; Tuzovic & Paluch, 2018). Nasirian et al. (2017) stated that voice assistant systems emerged to overcome the limitation of using a web search engine, which was unable to satisfy users’ dynamic needs for extensive information and data. Voice assistant technology reduces the time required to multitask and simplifies the process of searching (Nasirian et al., 2017).
Communicating with voice assistant technology is a straightforward procedure. Activating the voice assistants requires a specific trigger term, such as “Hey, Google,” “Ok, Google,” or “Alexa.” Since the devices are featured with always-on microphones, it can be simply used by calling the predefined activation phrase. Based on spoken or written input, voice assistants are able to comprehend human language and deliver information (Miquido, 2021). Once a user asks a question or gives a command to the voice assistant device, the machine interprets what the user intended, searches for a suitable response, and replies accordingly. Plus, all this process happens in the blink of an eye.
AI-based voice assistant technology is becoming rapidly congested and has provided an advantage to the service industry beyond the use of smart technology at home. Today’s customers are living the digital way of life at home. They regularly interact with smart home assistants, streaming media (i.e., Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu), and IoT-enabled home appliances. Hence, service providers are striving to develop a similar level of technological environment in the guest rooms and meet the expectations of guests (Figure 1). Hilton and Marriott’s hotels have launched smart guest systems which enable guests to personalize their preferences, for example, lighting, room temperature, bedding, and bathroom amenities (Starkov, 2023). The Wynn Las Vegas installed the Amazon Echo in every hotel guest room, allowing hotel guests to completely control their room lights, curtains, room temperature, and TV and request housekeeping service. Moreover, by utilizing such smart technology devices guests can receive basic information, such as weather and news, using voice commands in their hotel rooms. Since voice assistant technology is somewhat comparable to butler service, hoteliers are looking for ways to further implement this guest-facing technology and offer more comfort for their guests.

An image of a voice assistant in a hotel room.
Employee User Experience
With the explosion of the digital lifestyle, the term User Experience (UX) has begun to make a mark in society. UX has become a key factor in achieving a successful customer relationship and having a competitive advantage in business (Janković et al., 2019). Although UX is often used as a synonym for customer experience (CX) in the realm of technology, the terms UX and CX are not comparable. The customer experience refers to “The customer’s cognitive and affective assessment of all direct and indirect encounters with the firm relating to their purchasing behavior” (Klaus & Maklan, 2013, p. 227). As the CX term displayed, CX is specifically focused on customers and is limited to customers’ perceptions. On the other hand, UX is a generic term and may count for a broader concept than CX. UX tends to embrace the experiences gained from various angles, such as customers, employees, organizations, operators, and businesses (Spacey, 2017). Some researchers looked at the discrepancy between UX and CX from a different point of view. Janković et al. (2019) demonstrated that UX focuses on a specific part or service while CX includes every experience from all channels of the brand. Although UX and CX terms could look differently depending on what you focus on for each concept, when we restrict the experience within the service industry and the use of technology, UX can be a broader concept rather than CX that is limited to the customer perspective, only excluding other stakeholders.
From an internal point of view in the organization, UX embraces the interaction between employees and the tools and systems they use or work together in the workplace. When organizations consider the “user experience,” they tend to focus on UX for the customer-facing system as a customer’s journey to use their service or product (Methods, 2021). However, as satisfied employees provide better service and care for their customers, management should consider employee experiences above customer experiences. Enhancing employee user experience generates various advantages in the organization, such as increased productivity by working more efficiently, reduced costs with diminished repetitive tasks, increased cooperation, and decreased employee turnover rate (Kimachia, 2022; Newman, 2018). According to PwC, if organizations fail to understand how employees use technology in their jobs and neglect their needs from the tools, it eventually generates employee frustration and decreases productivity (Paylocity, 2016; PwC, n.d.). As a result, when organizations adopt technologies in the working environment, they should consider employee engagement to maximize the advantage of technology. The employee UX can be discussed in various ways according to technologies that are made for a certain main user, such as customer-facing technology (e.g., mobile check-in, in-room smart technology, and virtual concierge) and employee-facing technology (e.g., property management systems [PMS], communication platforms, and scheduling software). As mentioned before, the hospitality industry, being a guest-oriented business, primarily concentrates on customer-facing technology development and its application in service encounters (Pelau et al., 2021; Tai et al., 2021). Consequently, most hospitality scholars focused on employees’ experiences with customer-facing technologies in the workplace (Horpynich et al., 2025; Shum et al., 2024; Wang et al., 2024; Yang et al., 2024). Notably, while customer-facing technologies have widely been applied to the modern service encounter, they arouse various adverse effects for frontline service employees, such as job stress, job insecurity, and turnover intention (Chen & Cai, 2024; He et al., 2024; Kang et al., 2024). For this reason, the modern customer service training program generally consists of training for technology (e.g., technology product knowledge and relevant soft skills; McGhee, 2023; Salesforce, n.d.). Similarly, Christ-Brendemuhl (2022) explored frontline employees’ perspectives on working with customer-facing technology by conducting semi-structured interviews with frontline employees. The findings revealed the importance of training for workplace-related prerequisites for frontline employees to achieve successful technology adoption in customer service. Given the extant literature, this case study mainly focuses on customer-facing technologies from the perspective of service-employees.
Theoretical Background
Technological amenities have been gradually involved in the hospitality and tourism industry and accepted as a key competitive advantage by emphasizing the importance of understanding technologies to hospitality leaders (Ahmad & Scott, 2019; Morosan & DeFranco, 2019; Saydam et al., 2022). Previous research has demonstrated the significant relationship between technology challenges and employee behavior that influences successful operation and management (Chaudhuri et al., 2023; Khaliq et al., 2022; Wu et al., 2022). As one of the AI-based service technologies, voice assistant technology has been used for a variety of use in hotels, including smart room control, guest directory, internet browsing, emergency notifications, front desk request, personal accounts linkage, weather forecast, and handsfree calls (Buhalis & Moldavska, 2021). As a result, voice assistants provide numerous benefits in the hotel industry, such as personalization, superior guest experiences, and marketability (Revfine, 2022). Voice assistant technology offers various advantages, but there are drawbacks as well that should be carefully considered. Table 1 illustrates a detailed analysis of the conceptualization of voice assistant technology in hotels from both guests and hotels point of view. Typically, adopting the cutting edge of many new technologies has put more attention on customer experiences and their perceptions of using them (Methods, 2021). But now, as extant research has demonstrated (Kimachia, 2022), the current business society with various technologies already being applied and practiced should try to understand the current technology issues that service employees encounter in their work environments to bring numerous benefits to organizations.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Voice Assistants in Hotels.
Source. Developed based on Buhalis and Moldavska (2021) and Karagiannis (2024).
In the hospitality sector, technological amenities from service employees’ perspectives have been discussed by applying a variety of key theories, such as cognitive appraisal theory (Ding, 2021), conservation of research (COR) theory (Liu et al., 2024), job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Radic et al., 2024), and technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework (Pizam et al., 2022). While adopting various theoretical frameworks, hospitality scholars have demonstrated the multiple roles of hospitality technology in terms of service employees (Xu et al., 2023). By extension, extant research has drawn attention to a relationship between employees and technology as it is highly associated with a service failure incurred by employees’ attitudes and their performance in the service delivery process (Zhang & Jin, 2023). Therefore, based on the previous literature and the current issues related to voice assistant technology in the service industry, this case study presents the four potential challenges that service employees may encounter in the use of the technology in the lodging industry with imaginary scenarios considering each situation so that the organizers can fully take advantage of voice assistant technology by avoiding the threats: (1) Privacy concern; (2) Ease of use; (3) Efficiency; and (4) Customer service.
Dilemma
Privacy Concern
Warren and Brandeis (1890) conceptualized privacy as “the right to be left alone.” There are various kinds of voice assistant devices; however, every voice assistant device is equipped with sensitive always-on speakers and microphones to respond immediately to users’ verbal requests. Although this feature is a vital element that activates the device according to the user’s needs, it could accompany privacy and security concerns issues. Mishra and Shukla (2020) also raised the problem of investigating the psychological determinants of smart voice assistants. According to Amazon data, there was a decrease in Alexa users, and users’ privacy concerns were cited as one of the primary reasons for the diminution (Insider Intelligence, 2023). Privacy concerns are involved in a part of guest-facing challenges on voice recognition technology in terms of capturing and using guests’ personal data (Kantamneni & Chatterjee, 2023). However, this challenge not only goes for hotel guests but also service employees, and it may be especially applicable to the employees who work in the guest room every day. The following scenario is based on a true story from the hospitality industry and has been reconstructed for relevance.
Scenario #1: Anna is a 38-year-old woman who has been working as a housekeeping employee for 10 years at OO Hotel. OO Hotel is a Forbes five-star luxury hotel and casino resort located in Las Vegas. It is one of the largest resorts in the world, with 5,122 guest rooms, and includes outdoor and indoor pools, waterfalls, a convention center, numerous shops, and restaurants. Recently, the OO hotel installed a voice assistant device in all 5,122 guest rooms to provide more convenient service to their customers. When Anna was cleaning a guest room 1 day, her husband called her. They had a family emergency and decided to visit their hometown in the coming weekend. After work, Anna went to see her supervisor to request a day off for the coming weekend. Surprisingly, the supervisor was already aware of it and approved her request. Although her request was accepted, she was uncomfortable with what the supervisor already knew about the request. She began to suspect that the voice assistants in the rooms are being used to spy on employees. The next day, she was back at her shift as usual. However, she tried to avoid talking to other coworkers or getting any phone calls while in guest rooms since she was worried about privacy due to the presence of the voice assistant device.
Thus, the questions that can arise are, how is voice assistant technology controlled by the management to assure service employees’ privacy for improving employee user experience toward voice assistant technology? Can the management give employees some certainty on privacy protection and promise reliable working conditions to their employees?
Ease of Use
An individual’s perceived ease of use is defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort,” both physically and mentally. (Davis, 1989. p. 320). As mentioned, voice assistant technology is developed based on voice interface technology, which can be the most natural form of human interaction. However, from an employee perspective, that needs to inspect the devices over using technology to communicate, it may not provide one of the important abilities that technology offers to employees. Given that there are employees from different generations and that the employees have different levels of education, the management should be aware of the relevant complications that may occur. Here is another real-life example inspired by an actual incident.
Scenario #2: Barbara is a 61-year-old woman, and she is working with Anna as a housekeeping employee at OO Hotel. Although she only received elementary education in her childhood, she had no difficulty working at the hotel and was always satisfied with her job. As Anna did, Barbara also received information that the hotel was setting up voice assistant devices across all guest rooms and was trained ensure that the devices are in working condition. To reset a voice assistant device, she must follow several steps involving multiple buttons. Unfortunately, due to her unfamiliarity with technology or smart devices, she had difficulty inspecting the voice assistant devices every time she cleaned guest rooms and performed her final checks before leaving.
Hence the questions: how does management take care of employees with limited technology aptitude? From a management perspective, is offering additional employee training cost-effective in the operating system?
Efficiency
Employee efficiency is significantly associated with workload, which is one of the key factors in evaluating performance (Wibowo et al., 2021). In other words, the burden on employees and high work stress can result in work inefficiency that eventually affects organizations and businesses. When we revisit scenario #2 and investigate it, the scenario shows that adapting new technology created extra work affecting service employees. Moreover, some employees, such as Barbara, who is unacquainted with using technology, were exposed to the stress of working. The following scenario is linked to the work efficiency of service employees from the perspective of front desk staff.
Scenario #3: David is a 30-year-old man who has been working as a front desk agent for 4 years at OO Hotel. After the hotel implemented voice assistant devices in guest rooms, he frequently received notifications and updates from these devices on the front desk system. These notifications often involved non-urgent customer inquiries, such as local event schedules, weather updates, or news. Since some notifications could report critical tasks, David had to check every notification as it appeared. When he was checking in hotel guests, notifications sometimes popped up on the check-in system, covering the screen and distracting him from assisting in-person guests. Over time, he grew frustrated with having to handle the constant notifications and began to feel that he was wasting his time and energy. He wished to manage his duties based on priorities instead.
Of course, the lodging industry is a customer-centric business, and the current hospitality trend is being transformed into a technology-enabled sector. Thus, there is no doubt that hotels should strive to offer convenient service to customers and ensure their satisfaction. However, at the same time, the management must consider how the changes will influence their staff and map out strategies for internal marketing. Hence, the following questions can arise: how does voice assistant technology affect increased service efficiency for customers? What effort should the operators require to improve service and employee efficiency?
Customer Service
Although the percentage of households with a voice assistant is constantly increasing globally, some people are still struggling with accepting and utilizing these technologies. Moreover, hotel guests have privacy concerns about AI-enabled voice assistants since they think the always-on microphone function may record their private conversations (Kantamneni & Chatterjee, 2023). With that being said, voice assistant technology in the hotel rooms poses some issues (i.e., privacy and security concerns, usability issues) to guests, and those issues at times have to be handled by the employees. Based on a real story, this scenario illustrates an example of a frontline employee’s concerns about customer service.
Scenario #4: Charles is a 33-year-old man, a front desk agent at the OO Hotel. He has worked in the hospitality industry for over 10 years and has been working at the front desk for almost 3 years. When he was working the morning shift, he got a phone call from a guest room. The guest started complaining about the new voice assistant device in the guest room. The guest said they set a wake-up call last night; however, the alarm did not go off for some reason, and they overslept. Charles apologized to the customers for the inconvenience and offered loyalty program points as compensation. The guest was satisfied and hung up the phone. However, Charles got stressed because it was not the first time to receive such a complaint.
Hence the questions: in what ways could the recurring complaints about the voice assistants impact service employees’ job satisfaction and stress levels? How could the hotel management address the recurring issues with the voice assistants to reduce guest complaints and employee stress?
Discussion Questions
What would be the most significant determinants of employee user experience?
How is voice assistant technology controlled by the management to assure service employees’ privacy for improving employee user experience toward voice assistant technology?
Can the management give employees some certainty on privacy protection and promise reliable working conditions to their employees?
How does the management take care of the employees who have limited technology aptitude?
From a management perspective, is offering additional employee training cost-effective in the operating system?
How does voice assistant technology affect increased service efficiency for customers?
What effort should the operators require to increase service and employee efficiency?
What other challenges can happen to service employees affected by bringing new technologies into their workplace? And if so, how can the operators supplement the issues?
How can organizations balance the hotel customer experience and employee user experience toward voice assistant technology?
Can cooperative work be operated between human employees and AI-based agents while ensuring human employees’ job satisfaction? And if so, how?
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Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
