Jenny van Doorn and Jana Holthoewer

Introduction video

This chapter illustrates the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in marketing and will help managers develop a deeper understanding of its potential to revolutionize the service experience.

We summarize the use of AI and robots in practice and show that the adoption of AI predominantly occurs at the task level rather than the job level, implying that AI takes over some tasks that are part of a job and not the entire job. Based on these insights, we discuss opportunities and drawbacks of AI and robots and reflect on whether service robots will complement or substitute human employees.

Moreover, we explain why many consumers are still reluctant to engage with these new technologies and which conditions should be met in order to benefit from using service robots.

Download the chapter here.