Ethical frontiers of artificial intelligence in services: a comprehensive review

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in service delivery, ethical concerns around transparency, fairness, surveillance, and accountability have intensified. Despite a growing body of research, studies remain conceptually fragmented and lack a cohesive analytical framework. This study responds to that gap by systematically reviewing 99 peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2025. Guided by the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, the review employed an ethics-weighted vectorization method and cluster analysis to examine how ethical issues are addressed in AI-enabled services. The analysis yielded four thematic clusters: governance focused on preserving human agency, debates on algorithmic justice, challenges of data autonomy and surveillance, and efforts toward building transparent and accountable AI systems. These clusters reflect both overlapping and divergent ethical priorities within the service literature. By mapping the moral structure of the field, the study clarifies dominant theoretical lenses and highlights neglected areas. It also emphasizes the strategic role ethics can play in service innovation, offering actionable insights for managers tasked with balancing automation and human values. Ultimately, this review not only consolidates existing debates but charts a path for more integrative and empirically grounded ethical inquiry in service research.