WebinarOnline
Persuasion in the digital realm: AI, chatbots and the ethics of influencing traveller choices online
Friday, 11 December 2026
Explore how AI, chatbots and interface design influence traveller decisions, and consider practical principles for transparent personalisation, meaningful consent, inclusive access and accountable digital persuasion.
About this event
Digital travel services increasingly use artificial intelligence and conversational systems to guide attention, frame alternatives and influence decisions. This webinar examines the persuasive role of chatbots, recommendation tools and automated interfaces across the traveller journey. It asks when helpful personalisation becomes manipulation, and how providers can recognise the boundary between service and undue influence.
The session will introduce key ideas from persuasion research, behavioural science and technology ethics. Participants will consider how defaults, rankings, urgency cues and conversational language shape perceived choice. These techniques may reduce effort and improve relevance, but they can also conceal commercial priorities, reproduce bias or exploit moments of uncertainty. The discussion will distinguish legitimate assistance from practices that weaken informed consent.
Attention will also be given to data, transparency and accountability. Effective personalisation often depends on extensive behavioural information, yet travellers may not understand how their profiles are constructed or used. The webinar will examine proportionate disclosure, explainable recommendations and meaningful routes for correction or human review. It will consider how inclusive design can reduce disadvantages for people with different languages, abilities and levels of digital confidence.
Rather than treating ethics as a constraint added after development, the session presents it as part of service quality and institutional trust. Attendees will explore practical questions for design, governance and evaluation, including whose interests an automated system serves, which outcomes it optimises and how harms are detected. The webinar offers a clear framework for creating digital influence that remains useful, contestable and respectful of individual traveller autonomy.