Brave new world: service robots in the frontline

By Jochen Wirtz, Paul G. Patterson, W. Kunz, Thorsten Gruber, V. Lu, Stefanie Paluch, Antje Martins. Journal of Service Management, 2018

1,685 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose The service sector is at an inflection point with regard to productivity gains and service industrialization similar to the industrial revolution in manufacturing that started in the eighteenth century. Robotics in combination with rapidly improving technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), mobile, cloud, big data and biometrics will bring opportunities for a wide range of innovations that have the potential to dramatically change service industries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential role service robots will play in the future and to advance a research agenda for service researchers. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, robotics and AI literature. Findings The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it provides a definition of service robots, describes their key attributes, contrasts their features and capabilities with those of frontline employees, and provides an understanding for which types of service tasks robots will dominate and where humans will dominate. Second, this paper examines consumer perceptions, beliefs and behaviors as related to service robots, and advances the service robot acceptance model. Third, it provides an overview of the ethical questions surrounding robot-delivered services at the individual, market and societal level. Practical implications This paper helps service organizations and their management, service robot innovators, programmers and developers, and policymakers better understand the implications of a ubiquitous deployment of service robots. Originality/value This is the first conceptual paper that systematically examines key dimensions of robot-delivered frontline service and explores how these will differ in the future.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Marketing, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/608787bb357cd2dc5ff5dad44b3eaf7080fa9997

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Citations in the corpus

Examining the effects of robots' physical appearance, warmth, and competence in frontline services: The Humanness‐Value‐Loyalty model (2021, background): “Recent articles by Van Doorn et al. (2017), Wirtz et al. (2018) and Grewal et al. (2020) provide important conceptual contributions in this domain, but empirical work has been scarce (see Mende et al., 2019 for an exception).”
Automation fears: Drivers and solutions (2020, neutral): “, 2019), including agriculture (Driessen & Heutinck, 2015; Slaughter, Giles & Downey, 2008) and services (Huang & Rust, 2018; Ivanov & Webster, 2019a; Wirtz et al., 2018).”
Service robots in hotels: understanding the service quality perceptions of human-robot interaction (2019, background): “An increasing number of recent studies have attempted to conceptualize service robots in hospitality (Murphy, Gretzel, & Pesonen, 2019; van Doorn et al., 2017; Wirtz et al., 2018), understand hotel employees’ awareness of”
Engaged to a Robot? The Role of AI in Service (2020, background): “For example, service robots interact with customers with scale and consistent quality (Wirtz et al. 2018), automate social presence in the frontline (van Doorn et al. 2017), and have become part of routine service experiences (Mende et al. 2019).”
Alexa, she's not human but… Unveiling the drivers of consumers' trust in voice‐based artificial intelligence (2021, methodology): “According to Wirtz et al. (2018, 2019), when interacting with AI ‐ based personal assistants, functional elements, such as usefulness and ease of use, will appear to be given in most cases yet would be a barrier if not provided at a level expected by consumers.”
Engaging and retaining customers with AI and employee service (2020, positive): “Recent literature (Wirtz et al., 2018; Xiang et al., 2015) suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) plays an imperative role in influencing customers ’ service experience.”