WebinarOnline
Persuasion in the digital realm: AI, chatbots and the ethics of influencing traveller choices online
Friday, 11 December 2026
This webinar examines how chatbots, recommendations and interface design influence traveller choices online.
About this event
Conversational artificial intelligence, recommendation systems and booking interfaces influence how travellers compare options and make decisions online. This webinar examines defaults, ranking systems, urgency messages, artificial scarcity and natural language interactions. It asks when digital guidance improves comprehension and when it manipulates attention or restricts meaningful choice. The session will consider how design features work together across a booking journey and how apparently minor prompts can shape decisions when users face limited time, complex information or uncertainty.
Panellists will analyse the use of behavioural data for personalisation, including whether consent is informed and whether recommendations can be explained or corrected. The discussion will address automated disclosure, sponsored rankings, dynamic pricing and the allocation of responsibility when a system provides misleading advice. It will also consider accessibility for people with different languages, abilities, ages and levels of digital confidence. Ethical assessment will extend beyond interface design to the commercial objectives and data infrastructure that determine system behaviour.
Participants will gain systematic criteria for identifying whose interests a digital service advances and where risks of consumer harm may arise. They will learn to examine the evidence behind persuasive features, test whether less intrusive alternatives are available and establish routes for human review. The webinar will also consider monitoring, complaint handling and the withdrawal of features that produce unequal or unintended effects. Delegates will leave with a practical basis for designing or regulating online travel services that remain transparent, accessible and accountable. This supports digital innovation without weakening informed and voluntary consumer choice.