The integration of artificial intelligence and tourism culture industry requires that it is consumer-centered, and everything is based on the fundamental starting point of improving service quality and providing better tourism products. The article explores the impact of AI application on the cultural cognition level of tourists based on the role mechanism of AI and innovative inheritance methods in tourism culture inheritance. The level of tourists’ cultural cognition is quantified through the degree of understanding of tourism culture, the willingness to accept and disseminate tourism culture, the degree of preference and internalization of tourism culture, and the willingness to practice tourism culture, and the relevant research data are obtained through questionnaires. Then the benchmark regression model was constructed by combining the multiple linear regression model with the level of cultural cognition of tourists and the level of AI application as the explanatory variables and core explanatory variables. For every 1 percentage point increase in the level of AI application in tourism cultural heritage, the level of cultural cognition of tourists will increase by 0.419 percentage points. The application of artificial intelligence in tourism culture inheritance can expand the way of tourism culture inheritance and enhance the cultural cognition level of tourists through intelligent transmittable knowledge base.