Knowledge Production and Dissemination in Human-AI Collaboration: Generative AI as Travel Consultants
Keywords:
online travel platforms, generative AI, human-AI interaction, knowledge mediation, user engagement
Abstract
Currently, the opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) in travel consulting and user experience remain underexplored. This paper takes Wanderboat, an AI-driven customized online travel platform, as the research subject. Based on the Theory of Interactive Media Effects (TIME), the study employs semi-structured interviews and grounded theory methods to explore the social impacts of AI affordances on Human-AI Interaction (HAII). The findings reveal that in the knowledge production process, there are interaction modes of "full agency," "negotiated agency," and "agency paradox" between machine agency and user agency. In the content consumption and dissemination stages, positive or negative machine heuristics, along with social interaction participation provided by online communities, become factors that either enhance or diminish user engagement. Due to users' difficulty in taming or resisting AI algorithms based on the ChatGPT model, AI travel consultants hold a dominant position in the knowledge mediation process, leading to a trust crisis and technological fear among users regarding AI-generated content. This results in a zero-sum game dynamic in the "consultant-client" relationship.
References
[1] Liu, Z., & Cheng, C. (2017). Consultants as knowledge brokers: Issues and implications for China tourism research. Journal of China Tourism Research, 13(1), 103–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388160.2017.1327915
[2] Sundar, S. S., Jia, H., Waddell, T. F., & Huang, Y. (2015). Toward a theory of interactive media effects (TIME): Four models for explaining how interface features affect user psychology. In S. S. Sundar (Ed.), The handbook of the psychology of communication technology (pp. 47–86). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118426456.ch3
[3] Wong, C., & McKercher, B. (2011). Tourist information center staff as knowledge brokers: The case of Macau. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, 481–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.10.003
[4] Ward, V., House, A., & Hamer, S. (2009b). Knowledge brokering: The missing link in the evidence to action chain? Evidence and Policy, 5, 267–279. https://doi.org/10.1332/174426409X463811
[5] Donnelly, R. (2009). The knowledge economy and the restructuring of employment: The case of consultants. Work, Employment and Society, 23, 323–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017009102861
[6] Traynor, R., DeCorby, K., & Dobbins, M. (2014). Knowledge brokering in public health: A tale of two studies. Public Health, 128, 533–544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2014.01.015
[7] Alvesson, M. (2006). The best and the brightest: The construction, significance and effects of elite identities in consulting firms. Organization, 13, 195–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508406061674
[8] Wong, C., & McKercher, B. (2011). Tourist information center staff as knowledge brokers: The case of Macau. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, 481–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.10.003
[9] Nikolova, N., Reihlen, M., & Schlapfner, J. (2009). Client-consultant interaction: Capturing social practices of professional service production. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.05.004
[10] Nikolova, N., Reihlen, M., & Schlapfner, J. (2009). Client-consultant interaction: Capturing social practices of professional service production. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.05.004
[11] Walsh, K. (2002). Service-delivery strategies: Three approaches to consulting for hospitality. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 44(2), 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-8804(03)90019-X
[12] Alvesson, M. (1993). Organizations as rhetoric: Knowledge-intensive firms and the struggle with ambiguity. Journal of Management Studies, 30, 997–1022. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1993.tb00476.x
[13] Nikolova, N., Reihlen, M., & Schlapfner, J. (2009). Client-consultant interaction: Capturing social practices of professional service production. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.05.004
[14] Liu, Z., & Cheng, C. (2017). Consultants as knowledge brokers: Issues and implications for China tourism research. Journal of China Tourism Research, 13(1), 103–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388160.2017.1327915
[15] Xiao, H. (2013). Dynamics of China tourism and challenges for destination marketing and management. Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, 2, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2013.02.004
[16] Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003
[17] Sundar, S. S. (2008). Self as source: Agency and customization in interactive media. In E. A. Konijn, S. Utz, M. Tanis, & S. B. Barnes (Eds.), Mediated interpersonal communication (pp. 58–74). New York, NY: Routledge.
[18] Oh, J., Kang, H., Sudarshan, S., & Lee, J. A. (2021). Can liking, commenting, and sharing enhance persuasion? The interaction effect between modality interactivity and agency affordances on smokers' quitting intentions. Health Communication, 35(13), 1593–1604. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2019.1654172
[19] Lewis, D., & Moorkens, J. (2020). A rights-based approach to trustworthy AI in social media. Social Media + Society, 6(3), 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120954672
[20] Zheng, Y., Zhong, B., & Yang, F. (2018). When algorithms meet journalism: The user perception to automated news in a cross-cultural context. Computers in Human Behavior, 86, 266–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.04.046
[21] Kang, H., Shin, W., & Huang, J. (2021). Teens' privacy management on video-sharing social media: The roles of perceived privacy risk and parental mediation. Internet Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-01-2021-0005
[22] Bucher, T. (2017). The algorithmic imaginary: Exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1154086
[23] Sundar, S. S. (2020). Rise of machine agency: A framework for studying the psychology of human-AI interaction. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmz026
[24] Sundar, S. S., Jia, H., Waddell, T. F., & Huang, Y. (2015). Toward a theory of interactive media effects (TIME): Four models for explaining how interface features affect user psychology. In S. S. Sundar (Ed.), The handbook of the psychology of communication technology (pp. 47–86). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118426456.ch3
[25] Lee, H., Xu, Y., & Porterfield, A. (2020). Consumers' adoption of AR-based virtual fitting rooms: From the perspective of theory of interactive media effects. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.8220
[26] A, H. C. H., & B, J. O. (n.d.). Interacting with background music engages e-customers more: The impact of interactive music on consumer perception and behavioral intention. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 54.
[27] Wang, R., & Sundar, S. S. (2018). How does parallax scrolling influence user experience? A test of TIME (theory of interactive media effects). International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1373457
[28] Li, W., Mao, Y., & Zhou, L. (2021). The impact of interactivity on user satisfaction in digital social reading: Social presence as a mediator. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 4, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2021.1898850
[29] Sude, D. J., Pearson, G. D. H., & Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (2020). Self-expression just a click away: Source interactivity impacts on confirmation bias and political attitudes. Computers in Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106571
[30] Courtois, C., & Timmermans, E. (2018). Cracking the Tinder code: An experience sampling approach to the dynamics and impact of platform governing algorithms. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 23(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmx001
[31] Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 75–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00064
[32] White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–331. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040934
[33] Jia, H., Wu, M., Jung, E., Shapiro, A., & Sundar, S. S. (2012). Balancing human agency and object agency. In Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp '12 (pp. 1185–1188).
https://doi.org/10.1145/2370216.2370470
[34] Pickering, J. B., Engen, V., & Walland, P. (2017). The interplay between human and machine agency. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 10271, 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58071-5_4
[35] Sundar, S. S. (2020). Rise of machine agency: A framework for studying the psychology of human-AI interaction (HAII). Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmz026
[36] Sundar, S. S., & Kim, J. (2019). Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300768
[37] Reviglio, U., & Agosti, C. (2020). Thinking outside the black-box: The case for "algorithmic sovereignty" in social media. Social Media and Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120915613
[38] Kang, M., Shin, D. H., & Gong, T. (2016). The role of personalization, engagement, and trust in online communities. Information Technology and People, 29(3), 580–596. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-01-2015-0023
[39] Oh, J., Bellur, S., & Sundar, S. S. (2018). Clicking, assessing, immersing, and sharing: An empirical model of user engagement with interactive media. Communication Research, 45(5), 737–763. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215600493
[40] Hutchins, E. L., Holland, J. D., & Norman, D. A. (1986). Direct manipulation interfaces. In D. A. Norman & S. W. Draper (Eds.), User-centered system design (pp. 87–124). Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15703-5
[41] Kang, H., & Lou, C. (2022). AI agency vs. human agency: Understanding human-AI interactions on TikTok and their implications for user engagement. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 27(5), zmac014. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmac014
[42] Sundar, S. S., Song, Y., & Qie, R. (2022). Media effects research in the age of artificial intelligence, automation, and algorithms: Insights from a pioneering interdisciplinary scholar. Communication and Society, 61, 1–23.
[43] Sundar, S. S. (2007). Social psychology of interactivity in human-website interaction. In A. N. Joinson, K. Y. A. McKenna, T. Postmes, & U.-D. Reips (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Internet psychology (pp. 89–104). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
[44] Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 75–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00064
[45] Jakesch, M., French, M., Ma, X., Hancock, J., & Naaman, M. (2019). AI-mediated communication: How the perception that profile text was written by AI affects trustworthiness. In Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19), Paper No. 239. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300469
[46] Zhang, L., & Jung, E. H. (2019). WeChatting for health: An examination of the relationship between motivations and active engagement. Health Communication, 34(14), 1764–1774. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2018.1536942
[2] Sundar, S. S., Jia, H., Waddell, T. F., & Huang, Y. (2015). Toward a theory of interactive media effects (TIME): Four models for explaining how interface features affect user psychology. In S. S. Sundar (Ed.), The handbook of the psychology of communication technology (pp. 47–86). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118426456.ch3
[3] Wong, C., & McKercher, B. (2011). Tourist information center staff as knowledge brokers: The case of Macau. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, 481–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.10.003
[4] Ward, V., House, A., & Hamer, S. (2009b). Knowledge brokering: The missing link in the evidence to action chain? Evidence and Policy, 5, 267–279. https://doi.org/10.1332/174426409X463811
[5] Donnelly, R. (2009). The knowledge economy and the restructuring of employment: The case of consultants. Work, Employment and Society, 23, 323–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017009102861
[6] Traynor, R., DeCorby, K., & Dobbins, M. (2014). Knowledge brokering in public health: A tale of two studies. Public Health, 128, 533–544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2014.01.015
[7] Alvesson, M. (2006). The best and the brightest: The construction, significance and effects of elite identities in consulting firms. Organization, 13, 195–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508406061674
[8] Wong, C., & McKercher, B. (2011). Tourist information center staff as knowledge brokers: The case of Macau. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, 481–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.10.003
[9] Nikolova, N., Reihlen, M., & Schlapfner, J. (2009). Client-consultant interaction: Capturing social practices of professional service production. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.05.004
[10] Nikolova, N., Reihlen, M., & Schlapfner, J. (2009). Client-consultant interaction: Capturing social practices of professional service production. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.05.004
[11] Walsh, K. (2002). Service-delivery strategies: Three approaches to consulting for hospitality. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 44(2), 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-8804(03)90019-X
[12] Alvesson, M. (1993). Organizations as rhetoric: Knowledge-intensive firms and the struggle with ambiguity. Journal of Management Studies, 30, 997–1022. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1993.tb00476.x
[13] Nikolova, N., Reihlen, M., & Schlapfner, J. (2009). Client-consultant interaction: Capturing social practices of professional service production. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.05.004
[14] Liu, Z., & Cheng, C. (2017). Consultants as knowledge brokers: Issues and implications for China tourism research. Journal of China Tourism Research, 13(1), 103–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388160.2017.1327915
[15] Xiao, H. (2013). Dynamics of China tourism and challenges for destination marketing and management. Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, 2, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2013.02.004
[16] Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003
[17] Sundar, S. S. (2008). Self as source: Agency and customization in interactive media. In E. A. Konijn, S. Utz, M. Tanis, & S. B. Barnes (Eds.), Mediated interpersonal communication (pp. 58–74). New York, NY: Routledge.
[18] Oh, J., Kang, H., Sudarshan, S., & Lee, J. A. (2021). Can liking, commenting, and sharing enhance persuasion? The interaction effect between modality interactivity and agency affordances on smokers' quitting intentions. Health Communication, 35(13), 1593–1604. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2019.1654172
[19] Lewis, D., & Moorkens, J. (2020). A rights-based approach to trustworthy AI in social media. Social Media + Society, 6(3), 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120954672
[20] Zheng, Y., Zhong, B., & Yang, F. (2018). When algorithms meet journalism: The user perception to automated news in a cross-cultural context. Computers in Human Behavior, 86, 266–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.04.046
[21] Kang, H., Shin, W., & Huang, J. (2021). Teens' privacy management on video-sharing social media: The roles of perceived privacy risk and parental mediation. Internet Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-01-2021-0005
[22] Bucher, T. (2017). The algorithmic imaginary: Exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1154086
[23] Sundar, S. S. (2020). Rise of machine agency: A framework for studying the psychology of human-AI interaction. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmz026
[24] Sundar, S. S., Jia, H., Waddell, T. F., & Huang, Y. (2015). Toward a theory of interactive media effects (TIME): Four models for explaining how interface features affect user psychology. In S. S. Sundar (Ed.), The handbook of the psychology of communication technology (pp. 47–86). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118426456.ch3
[25] Lee, H., Xu, Y., & Porterfield, A. (2020). Consumers' adoption of AR-based virtual fitting rooms: From the perspective of theory of interactive media effects. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.8220
[26] A, H. C. H., & B, J. O. (n.d.). Interacting with background music engages e-customers more: The impact of interactive music on consumer perception and behavioral intention. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 54.
[27] Wang, R., & Sundar, S. S. (2018). How does parallax scrolling influence user experience? A test of TIME (theory of interactive media effects). International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1373457
[28] Li, W., Mao, Y., & Zhou, L. (2021). The impact of interactivity on user satisfaction in digital social reading: Social presence as a mediator. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 4, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2021.1898850
[29] Sude, D. J., Pearson, G. D. H., & Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (2020). Self-expression just a click away: Source interactivity impacts on confirmation bias and political attitudes. Computers in Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106571
[30] Courtois, C., & Timmermans, E. (2018). Cracking the Tinder code: An experience sampling approach to the dynamics and impact of platform governing algorithms. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 23(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmx001
[31] Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 75–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00064
[32] White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–331. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040934
[33] Jia, H., Wu, M., Jung, E., Shapiro, A., & Sundar, S. S. (2012). Balancing human agency and object agency. In Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp '12 (pp. 1185–1188).
https://doi.org/10.1145/2370216.2370470
[34] Pickering, J. B., Engen, V., & Walland, P. (2017). The interplay between human and machine agency. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 10271, 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58071-5_4
[35] Sundar, S. S. (2020). Rise of machine agency: A framework for studying the psychology of human-AI interaction (HAII). Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmz026
[36] Sundar, S. S., & Kim, J. (2019). Machine heuristic: When we trust computers more than humans with our personal information. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300768
[37] Reviglio, U., & Agosti, C. (2020). Thinking outside the black-box: The case for "algorithmic sovereignty" in social media. Social Media and Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120915613
[38] Kang, M., Shin, D. H., & Gong, T. (2016). The role of personalization, engagement, and trust in online communities. Information Technology and People, 29(3), 580–596. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-01-2015-0023
[39] Oh, J., Bellur, S., & Sundar, S. S. (2018). Clicking, assessing, immersing, and sharing: An empirical model of user engagement with interactive media. Communication Research, 45(5), 737–763. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215600493
[40] Hutchins, E. L., Holland, J. D., & Norman, D. A. (1986). Direct manipulation interfaces. In D. A. Norman & S. W. Draper (Eds.), User-centered system design (pp. 87–124). Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15703-5
[41] Kang, H., & Lou, C. (2022). AI agency vs. human agency: Understanding human-AI interactions on TikTok and their implications for user engagement. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 27(5), zmac014. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmac014
[42] Sundar, S. S., Song, Y., & Qie, R. (2022). Media effects research in the age of artificial intelligence, automation, and algorithms: Insights from a pioneering interdisciplinary scholar. Communication and Society, 61, 1–23.
[43] Sundar, S. S. (2007). Social psychology of interactivity in human-website interaction. In A. N. Joinson, K. Y. A. McKenna, T. Postmes, & U.-D. Reips (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Internet psychology (pp. 89–104). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
[44] Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 75–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00064
[45] Jakesch, M., French, M., Ma, X., Hancock, J., & Naaman, M. (2019). AI-mediated communication: How the perception that profile text was written by AI affects trustworthiness. In Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19), Paper No. 239. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300469
[46] Zhang, L., & Jung, E. H. (2019). WeChatting for health: An examination of the relationship between motivations and active engagement. Health Communication, 34(14), 1764–1774. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2018.1536942
Published
2025-07-22
How to Cite
Shu, J. (2025, July 22). Knowledge Production and Dissemination in Human-AI Collaboration: Generative AI as Travel Consultants. Humanities and Social Science Research, 8(4), p56. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.30560/hssr.v8n4p56
Issue
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
1.png)
