Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, cilt.44, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
This study investigates how gastronomy professionals perceive and evaluate artificial intelligence-assisted plate design, focusing on creativity, value co-creation, and strategic implications. Adopting a design-integrated qualitative approach, the research combines AI-generated plate design artifacts with in-depth interviews with 28 gastronomy professionals across restaurants and luxury hotels. The findings reveal that AI is predominantly perceived as a creativity-support system that enhances ideation, aesthetic exploration, and experiential differentiation rather than as a substitute for human creativity. However, concerns regarding standardization and loss of authorship highlight the conditional nature of AI's creative value. Drawing on creativity theory, human–AI collaboration, and Service-Dominant Logic, the study conceptualizes AI-assisted plate design as a co-creative, interpretive process embedded in professional sense-making. The research contributes to hospitality and gastronomy literature by repositioning AI as a symbolic and strategic resource in experiential innovation, offering implications for theory, professional practice, and technology design.