Learning that a client has sought any level of AI-generated advice leaves travel advisors less motivated to work with them later, a new study has found.
The research examined how professionals perceive clients who consult AI-driven advisors and was conducted by Monash University Business School in collaboration with MUMA College of Business at the University of South Florida.
The study found that clients seeking a second opinion from artificial intelligence erodes advisors’ motivation to work with them. Advisors feeling offended due to being equated with AI can explain the effect, with advisors also viewing clients who consult AI as less competent and warm.
Importantly, this effect persists even when clients use AI only for background information or as a complementary resource.
“Advisors view AI as substantially inferior to themselves; thus, being placed in the same category as an AI system feels insulting and signals disrespect, undermining advisors’ willingness to engage,” author associate professor Gerri Spassova said.
The research raises the question of whether this perception would change once AI becomes more effective and widely accepted.
“One can only speculate,” Spassova said. “My intuition is that the situation will not get much better. Firstly, because professional advisors’ jobs are on the line.
“Also, as AI gets better, it may threaten our sense of worth and self-regard, and so when clients defer to AI, it would prompt advisors to question the value of their human contribution.”
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But Adelaide advisor Holly Velardo, from Hollyday Travel, said she wasn’t offended by clients using AI ahead of meeting her to discuss their plans.
“I’m personally not offended when clients use AI for research – it’s actually a great tool for getting started,” she said.
“What I do want clients to be aware of is that AI information isn’t always accurate or up to date. But there’s a big difference between online information and real experience.
“Nothing compares to the knowledge we have from personally staying in the hotels we recommend, walking the streets of the destinations we send clients to, and building relationships with local operators over years of travel.”
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One way the researchers assessed this was by asking participants to imagine they worked for a travel agency and that they spent an hour with a client who needed advice about a trip to North America.
Half of the participants were then told that the client also saw another travel advisor and ended up booking the trip through them.
For the other half, the other travel advisor was described as an AI travel agent.
Participants were then asked to imagine that a few months after that first encounter, they were asked by the same client to book a new trip.
Participants were less willing to spend time with the client if they had booked a trip with an AI agent on the previous occasion.
“Ultimately, we believe that at present it is better for clients not to disclose to their advisors that they consulted AI. And this may be particularly true for new client-advisor relationships, where the client has no track record of doing business with the advisor and where trust may not have been established yet,” associate professor Spassova said.
