IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v85y2025ics096969892500061x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

AI service may backfire: Reduced service warmth due to service provider transformation

Author

Listed:
  • Lv, Xingyang
  • Yang, Yufan
  • Qin, Dazhi
  • Liu, Xiaoyan

Abstract

Perceived service warmth, arising from interactions between customers and employees, is a fundamental component of the hospitality industry. However, as artificial intelligence (AI) facilities such as service robots and chatbots gradually replace the role of human staff, the inherent warmth of the hospitality industry may be under threat. Therefore, the current research aims to investigate how such service provider transformations might influence customer warmth perceptions, the underlying mechanism, and practical solutions for firms that plan to deploy AI facilities in the future. Using five studies (and a supplemental study), we demonstrate that AI (vs. human) service significantly reduces customers’ perceived service warmth due to the diminished mind perceptions (i.e., experience and agency) of AI staff as service providers. Such a warmth loss effect further leads to lower customers’ continuous usage intention of AI service. However, the effect is attenuated when AI staff interacts with customers using an informal (vs. formal) language style or for customers with a utilitarian (vs. hedonic) motivation. The findings of this research contribute to the literature on AI service and provide valuable insights for marketers into effective AI deployment in the hospitality industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Lv, Xingyang & Yang, Yufan & Qin, Dazhi & Liu, Xiaoyan, 2025. "AI service may backfire: Reduced service warmth due to service provider transformation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:85:y:2025:i:c:s096969892500061x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096969892500061X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104282?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:85:y:2025:i:c:s096969892500061x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.