Service (business)
Related papers: 20
About
Service, in the context of robotics and AI, refers to the delivery of value-creating activities to customers, organizations, or individuals through automated systems, intelligent agents, and physical robots operating in commercial or domestic settings. Service robots are deployed across hospitality, healthcare, retail, tourism, and aged care to perform tasks such as guest check-in, guided tours, eldercare assistance, and customer interaction—roles traditionally fulfilled by human workers. These systems integrate AI capabilities including natural language processing, computer vision, and adaptive behavior to engage customers at the frontline of service encounters. The field examines how design factors such as anthropomorphism, empathy, and interaction quality influence consumer trust and acceptance of robotic service providers. Service robotics matters because it addresses critical productivity constraints in labor-intensive industries, enables scalable and consistent service delivery, and opens new questions around human-robot collaboration, customer experience design, and ethical deployment. As robots become standard fixtures in commercial environments, understanding how they create or destroy value is essential for engineers and business strategists alike.
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Top Cited Papers
Brave new world: service robots in the frontline
Jochen Wirtz, Paul G. Patterson, Werner H. Kunz, Thorsten Gruber, Vinh Nhat Lu, Stefanie Paluch, Antje Martins
Citations: 2082 • 2018
Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto
Jenny van Doorn, Martin Mende, Stephanie Noble, John Hulland, Amy L. Ostrom, Dhruv Grewal, J. Andrew Petersen
Citations: 1237 • 2016
Service Robots Rising: How Humanoid Robots Influence Service Experiences and Elicit Compensatory Consumer Responses
Martin Mende, Maura L. Scott, Jenny van Doorn, Dhruv Grewal, Ilana Shanks
Citations: 1098 • 2019
Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy
Jochen Wirtz, Christopher Lovelock
Citations: 1035 • 1984
Understanding anthropomorphism in service provision: a meta-analysis of physical robots, chatbots, and other AI
Markus Blut, Cheng Wang, Nancy V. Wünderlich, Christian Brock
Citations: 1033 • 2021
Engaged to a Robot? The Role of AI in Service
Ming‐Hui Huang, Roland T. Rust
Citations: 1014 • 2020
Developing and validating a service robot integration willingness scale
Lu Lu, Ruiying Cai, Doğan Gürsoy
Citations: 941 • 2019
Effects of COVID-19 on hotel marketing and management: a perspective article
Yangyang Jiang, Jun Wen
Citations: 836 • 2020
What makes an AI device human-like? The role of interaction quality, empathy and perceived psychological anthropomorphic characteristics in the acceptance of artificial intelligence in the service industry
Corina Pelău, Dan‐Cristian Dabija, Irina Ene
Citations: 804 • 2021
Service robot implementation: a theoretical framework and research agenda
Daniel Belanche, Luis V. Casaló, Carlos Flavián, Jeroen Schepers
Citations: 652 • 2019
In the hands of machines? The future of aged care
Robert Sparrow, Linda Sparrow
Citations: 618 • 2006
Stiffening in Soft Robotics: A Review of the State of the Art
Mariangela Manti, Vito Cacucciolo, Matteo Cianchetti
Citations: 613 • 2016
Leveraging human-robot interaction in hospitality services: Incorporating the role of perceived value, empathy, and information sharing into visitors’ intentions to use social robots
Ronan de Kervenoael, Rajibul Hasan, Alexandre Schwob, Edwin Goh
Citations: 577 • 2019
Understanding consumers’ acceptance of automated technologies in service encounters: Drivers of digital voice assistants adoption
Teresa Fernandes, Elisabete Oliveira
Citations: 571 • 2020
Preference for robot service or human service in hotels? Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic
Seongseop Kim, Jungkeun Kim, Frank Badu‐Baiden, Marilyn Giroux, Youngjoon Choi
Citations: 543 • 2020
Service robots, customers and service employees: what can we learn from the academic literature and where are the gaps?
Vinh Nhat Lu, Jochen Wirtz, Werner H. Kunz, Stefanie Paluch, Thorsten Gruber, Antje Martins, Paul G. Patterson
Citations: 541 • 2020
The future of construction automation: Technological disruption and the upcoming ubiquity of robotics
Thomas Böck
Citations: 517 • 2015
Service robots in the domestic environment
Jodi Forlizzi, Carl DiSalvo
Citations: 509 • 2006
Trust in humanoid robots: implications for services marketing
Michelle M. E. van Pinxteren, Ruud W.H. Wetzels, Jessica Rüger, Mark Pluymaekers, Martin Wetzels
Citations: 505 • 2019
The interactive museum tour-guide robot
Wolfram Burgard, Armin B. Cremers, Dieter Fox, Dirk Hähnel, Gerhard Lakemeyer, Dirk Schulz, Walter Steiner, Sebastian Thrun
Citations: 504 • 1998