A Systematic Review of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Value Co-creation: Current Status and Future Research Avenues

Abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) and robots are increasingly taking place in practical service solutions, it is necessary to understand technology in value co-creation. We conducted a systematic literature review on the topic to advance theoretical analysis of AI and robots in value co-creation. By systematically reviewing 61 AI and robotics articles, which have been published in top marketing and service research journals, we identified four themes in literature, namely, generic field advancement, supporting service providers, enabling resource integration between service providers and beneficiaries, and supporting beneficiaries' well-being. With the identification of the first set of literature on AI and robots in value co-creation, we push forward an important sub-field of value co-creation literature. In addition, to advance the field, we suggest building on actor-network theory and science and technology studies to understand the agency of technology in value co-creation. Considering that technology has agency, it opens new interesting research avenues around shopping bots and human-to-non-human frontline interaction that are likely to influence resource integration, customer engagement and value co-creation in the future. We also encourage our colleagues to conduct postphenomenological research to be better geared for analysing how technology (including AI and robots) mediates the individual experience of value.

The impact of artificial intelligence on event experiences: a scenario technique approach

“…In line with the identified gap of this study, Kaartemo and Helkkula (2018) argue that while technology is a key area in contemporary service-dominant (SD) logic studies, technology-mediated value co-creation is still often limited to a discussion of humans as actors. What we need are studies that transcend actor discussions toward human-to-non-human value co-creation (Gidhagen et al 2017), and explore how AI could become a non-human actor with the potential to transform markets and ecosystems.…”

“…In order to illustrate the theoretical significance of the three scenarios from a positive to a suspicious to a negative experience, the approach of Yeoman et al (2015) in "2050: New Zealand's sustainable future" is adopted, which suggests to pose some significant 'So What' questions. The questions were developed based on the research questions, the literature and the data to a) make sense of the scenarios and b) contextualise and theoretically embed them into the wider AI and SD-logic value co-creation discourse (Gidhagen et al 2017;Vargo and Lusch 2017;Huang and Rust 2018;Kaartemo and Helkkula 2018;Ivanov et al 2019) towards a theoretical and practical contribution.…”

“…While the major potential of AI is predicted across the service industries (Ivanov and Webster 2017;Huang and Rust 2018;Kaartemo and Helkkula 2018), its application remains however largely theorised and little understood in practice. Kaartemo and Helkkula (2018) offer one of the most comprehensive studies of AI in the fields of service science, business and marketing research.…”

“…While the major potential of AI is predicted across the service industries (Ivanov and Webster 2017;Huang and Rust 2018;Kaartemo and Helkkula 2018), its application remains however largely theorised and little understood in practice. Kaartemo and Helkkula (2018) offer one of the most comprehensive studies of AI in the fields of service science, business and marketing research. In their systematic review of the literature (see Kaartemo and Helkkula 2018), they set an agenda for AI research in value co-creation with the following key areas: 1) generic field advancement of technology in value co-creation, 2) AI and robots in a service provider's value co-creation, 3) AI and robots in a beneficiary's value co-creation, 4) AI and robots in systemic value co-creation, 5) shopping bots in value co-creation, 6) autonomous shopping devices (shopping bot 3.0) in value cocreation, and 7) post-phenomenological research on AI and robots in value co-creation.…”

“…What we need are studies that transcend actor discussions toward human-to-non-human value co-creation (Gidhagen et al 2017), and explore how AI could become a non-human actor with the potential to transform markets and ecosystems. Based on this gap, this study seeks to contribute to areas 1 and 2 (Kaartemo and Helkkula 2018) in that it aims to create a better understanding of how AI serves as a resource and potential non-human actor in humandominated business context, i.e. events experiences.…”