Editorial: Artificial Intelligence and Robots in the Service Encounter

This special issue on AI and robots in service interactions of the Journal of Service Management Research aims to contribute and elaborated our understanding of the new challenges organizations, employees and customers face due to the infusion of service robot- and AI-facilitated and automated interactions in the service encounter. For service organizations, it is essential to recognize and evaluate service robots’ potential not only for their own organizational success, but also for the well-being of their employees and acceptance, and the quality perception and satisfaction of their customers. We will start with a short introduction into service robots and AI before we introduce the four papers of this special issue. We use the topics of these papers as a starting point and discuss implications for future research in this emerging field.