Rise of the Machines? Customer Engagement in Automated Service Interactions

Artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to spawn revolutionary transformational effects on service organizations, including by impacting the ways in which firms engage with their customers. In parallel, customer engagement (CE), which reflects customer interactions with brands, offerings, or firms, has risen to the top of many managers’ strategic wish lists in the last decade. However, despite literature-based advances made in both areas, AI and CE are largely investigated in isolation to date, yielding a paucity of insight into their interface. In response to this gap, this Special Issue offers a pioneering exploration of CE in automated or AI-based service interactions. Our editorial first reviews AI’s Industry 4.0 underpinnings, followed by an important AI typology that comprises robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) applications. We then offer a high-level synopsis of existing CE research, followed by the development of a set of integrative propositions of CE in automated service interactions. Next, we introduce the Special Issue papers, which feature particular RPA, ML, or DL applications. We conclude with an overview of further research avenues in this growing area, which has the potential to develop into a powerful service research substream in the coming years.