A personal knowledge system for responsible learning with artificial intelligence in tourism and hospitality education

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has transformed tourism and hospitality education, creating opportunities for enhanced learning alongside concerns regarding cognitive offloading and unvalidated outputs. This research note proposes a three-stage Personal Knowledge System (PKS) for tourism and hospitality education that integrates students’ note-taking practices with digital platforms and the responsible use of GenAI tools. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method, the system progresses from fleeting notes captured during experiential learning, such as field trips, industry talks, and observations, through to permanent, interlinked digital notes supported by academic literature and referencing tools, and finally to AI-assisted synthesis and problem-solving. The PKS is particularly suited to tourism and hospitality education, where learning is experiential, situational, and industry-facing. By anchoring GenAI use within a body of notes that students have created and verified, the PKS preserves human agency and critical thinking, reduces reliance on unverifiable AI-generated content, and builds a foundation for lifelong learning.