The bright and dark sides of artificial intelligence: A futures perspective on tourist destination experiences

The proliferation of digital technologies has received considerable attention in the business landscape. Artificial intelligence (AI) is proclaimed as a transformative technological resource to human experiences, while concrete future scenarios of AI application within contemporary service ecosystems are only little understood. Through the theoretical lens of the service-dominant (S-D) logic and a futures methods approach, this study zooms-in on AI as a resource and sheds light on its bright and dark sides. The theoretical and practical contributions of this paper lie in bridging the S-D logic, AI and tourist experience literature. The developed theoretical model, The Realms of AI Tourist Experiences, holistically shows the positive and negative valences of value formation through AI in tourist experiences, and helps organisations prepare and design for the future of AI-facilitated experiences in tourism destinations and wider service contexts. •Human-AI interaction: Presenting possible positive and negative aspects.•Exploring possible impacts of AI on tourism destinations in the year 2025.•Conceptualising the ‘Realms of AI Tourist Experiences’ model.•Presenting positive and negative valences of value formation through AI.