AI and service encounters

This chapter takes a customer-centric interpretation of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) agents in service encounters. Different AI agents touch consumers and employees throughout service experience in tourism and hospitality, retailing, and healthcare service encounters. With the increasing number of studies about different AI agents’ interaction with consumers and employees, the antecedents of various AI-supported service encounters require a comprehensive review. Consequently, this chapter aims to provide an inclusive framework to interpret the AI-supported service encounter, based on the service experience perspective including pre-service encounter, core service encounter and post-service encounter stages. Accordingly, the critical antecedents of AI supported service encounters are reviewed with the main theoretical models applied in the extant literature through a three-stage service experience lens. After introducing the details of actual service encounter, service AI technology, levels of AI, and different service AI tools are briefly reviewed. The chapter concludes with the actual state of AI in service encounters and key areas for further research after reviewing main factors and theoretical frameworks used to explain AI in service encounters.