While artificial intelligence is progressively becoming integrated into the functioning of smart tourism ecosystems, especially within hospitality organizations, there are significant differences in the ways it impacts the labor force. Even though AI is usually viewed as an efficiency enhancer, the current literature reveals that organizational effects of technology have relatively little to do with its actual capabilities. Instead, organizational consequences are determined mostly by the ways in which work gets redesigned and managed. The present paper seeks to understand AI-led organizational transformation in the domain of hospitality by adopting a workforce and organizational readiness perspective. Based on the integrative literature review of interdisciplinary sources, along with executive interviews conducted recently in branded hotels, three major tensions associated with AI adoption can be identified. These include inequitable spread of digital skills following technology implementation, differences between task automation and work redesign, as well as the varying abilities of managers to interpret the output generated by algorithms. In order to understand AI adoption as a process rather than a moment of achievement, this article views technology implementation as part of a developing capability governance process in smart tourism ecosystems. Organizational processes concerning skills allocation, power management and organizational learning appear to be the factors affecting AI contribution to adaptation and organizational resilience. Given the limited longitudinal data collected, this study provides preliminary evidence for the need to explore workforce governance as a crucial component of hospitality digital transformation.
Publication Date: 2026-06-21