Sunyoung Hlee

Papers

Total Citations

152

H-Index

About

Sunyoung Hlee is a leading researcher at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction, and service marketing. Her work fundamentally explores how customers form meaningful connections with AI-powered service robots, a critical question as automation reshapes the hospitality and service industries. Hlee’s most influential study (115 citations) empirically dissects the functional and emotional elements of service robots that drive customer engagement, revealing that meaningful outcomes arise from a delicate balance of utility and emotional resonance. Her subsequent work (37 citations) extends this by applying situated action theory to understand how context and real-time interactions shape desirable customer-robot relationships. By moving beyond simple satisfaction metrics, Hlee’s research provides a nuanced framework for designing robots that foster genuine, lasting engagement rather than mere transactional efficiency. Her contributions are vital for practitioners seeking to implement robots that enhance, rather than diminish, the human experience. With her work gaining rapid traction, Hlee is establishing herself as a key voice in defining the future of meaningful human-machine collaboration in service contexts.