AI-Enabled Co-Creation in Digital Travel: Cognitive and Emotional Drivers of Satisfaction

As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms digital travel services, understanding its role in customer value co-creation (CVC) becomes crucial. Drawing on Service-Dominant Logic and Cognitive Effort Theory, this study examines how AI-enabled CVC affects choice stress, perceived effort, satisfaction, and intention to use. Data from 283 Dutch consumers with AI-assisted travel experience were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results reveal that CVC reduces choice stress and enhances satisfaction while its effect on perceived effort is nonsignificant, reflecting a facilitative rather than effort-increasing role. Satisfaction partially mediates the effects of CVC and choice stress on intention, underscoring its pivotal role in user engagement. The moderating effect of AI usage is modest, positively strengthening the relationship between perceived effort and intention and amplifying the stress-reducing impact of CVC. The findings deepen understanding of AI’s cognitive–emotional dynamics in service encounters and offer actionable guidance for service marketers and travel managers to design more adaptive, user-centered AI experiences.