Human or nonhuman agent? Experiences of empathy in a digital customer tourism journey

Digitalisation of services offers several possibilities to enhance the tourism experience as technology is increasingly mediating experiences. Along with the development of the service concept, digital transformation has been extended to services in which the customer may interact with a human agent or a technology-provided nonhuman agent. With digital services increasingly becoming mediating experiences, there is a constant need to balance them with empathetic customer insights to perceive a holistic understanding of each customer’s needs. Empathy is a critical part of ethics and morality because it requires one to experience otherness when acknowledging the perspectives and well-being of others in situations that are not necessarily beneficial to oneself. Technology-provided nonhuman agent services have a significant role in digital transformation where traditional services like data and activities are reformed and new services are developed.