Challenges in re-designing operations and jobs to embody AI and robotics in services. Findings from a case in the hospitality industry

Abstract

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and service robots in the tourism industry for frontline service automation is generating a growing interest. Although there is a fairly large body of literature about this research field, the impacts on the service encounter need to be further investigated. The paper presents an action research project that led to employ the humanoid robot “Pepper”, equipped with a supervised machine-learning AI system, at the reception of an Italian hotel to provide information to clients. This allowed to explore the role played by this agent and the effects on the changing role taken by frontline employees (FLE) and customers. Findings show that this technology can act as an augmentation force and that FLEs’ role can evolve mainly into that of enabler - of the customers and of technology -, innovator and coordinator, while customers may take above all the role of enabler of the technology. The study also contributes to introduce the new role of “AI supervisor” among FLEs.

Robotic role theory: an integrative review of human–robot service interaction to advance role theory in the age of social robots

“…Examples include the demeanor of older adults when encountering a robot (Wang et al. , 2019), the behavioral reaction of children towards an educational robot (Oh and Kim, 2010) or consumer behavioral responses towards robots in hospitality contexts (Mingotto et al. , 2021).…”

“…Social robots will likely augment human employees as team members in service provision (e.g. Huisman and Kort, 2019) and change employee roles (Mingotto et al, 2021). Based on studies under the themes of consumer role behavior and robot role suitability, we thus revise the original proposition by including the positive effect of shared common role expectations of human and robotic service employees.…”

Co-Creating New Directions for Service Robots in Hospitality and Tourism

“…Both ease of use and usefulness of service robots influence employees' attitudes towards RAISA. Hospitality and tourism businesses must accurately design how robots can support or substitute human tasks, and determine "joint complementary functions" [52] as the introduction of service robots can adversely affect employees' sense of workplace belonging and dedication [53]. The implementation of RAISA in hospitality and tourism could, for instance, enable employees to focus on providing a more personal guest experience [28].…”

Service robots are an option for contactless services due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the hotels

“…The purpose of using robots is to increase work efficiency, labour productivity, lifting heavy materials, etc. (Manthiou et al 2020;Mingotto et al 2020). In recent times SR can be found in the hospitality industries to achieve customer satisfaction.…”