Paper Type

Complete

Paper Number

PACIS2025-1147

Description

Digital platforms face the growing challenge of helping consumers navigate large volumes of user-generated reviews. This study examines the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) summaries on consumer behavior and hotel sales. Using a field experiment on Trip.com, we assess how a GAI summary feature influences purchasing and browsing behavior. We find that the GAI summary increases purchase rates and shifts users from reading detailed reviews to exploring more hotels. Further analysis shows that linguistic features—such as subjectivity, sentiment, and content quality—play a key role in shaping consumer responses. Consumers prefer summaries that are objective, concise, and easy to read. The study also highlights a complementary relationship between GAI summaries and human reviews in driving hotel sales. GAI summaries that offer non-redundant insights are particularly effective in increasing order volume. These findings offer timely guidance for platforms seeking to leverage GAI to enhance both user experience and supply-side performance.

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AI ML

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Jul 6th, 12:00 AM

When Generative Artificial Intelligence Meets Human Reviews: Effects on Consumer Behavior and Hotel Sales

Digital platforms face the growing challenge of helping consumers navigate large volumes of user-generated reviews. This study examines the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) summaries on consumer behavior and hotel sales. Using a field experiment on Trip.com, we assess how a GAI summary feature influences purchasing and browsing behavior. We find that the GAI summary increases purchase rates and shifts users from reading detailed reviews to exploring more hotels. Further analysis shows that linguistic features—such as subjectivity, sentiment, and content quality—play a key role in shaping consumer responses. Consumers prefer summaries that are objective, concise, and easy to read. The study also highlights a complementary relationship between GAI summaries and human reviews in driving hotel sales. GAI summaries that offer non-redundant insights are particularly effective in increasing order volume. These findings offer timely guidance for platforms seeking to leverage GAI to enhance both user experience and supply-side performance.