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Significant advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have given a strong tailwind to the spread of technologies based on it. AI technologies are increasingly influencing private contexts but also the service sector where more and more service encounters are handled by chatbots. In part, however, the spread of chatbots and the associated focus on their functional advantages seem to contradict extant research findings that service interactions are also driven by emotional components. A central role is played here by so-called emotional contagion (i.e., the unconscious transfer of emotions from employees to customers). Against the background that this contagion with positive emotions can lead to a better evaluation of the service transaction in the further course, it is the goal of this book to investigate the effects of positive displayed emotions of a chatbot. For this purpose, six consecutive studies were conducted. The results show that the expression of positive emotions by a chatbot enriches the service interactions by transmitting positive emotions that, in the further course, do also lead to a better evaluation of the service experienced. Moreover, it is shown that these emotional reactions are dependent on the customer's personality and the chatbot's appearance, expressed through an avatar.
The power of existing AI technologies also offers potential for customers and companies, which results in an increasing number of service encounters being handled by AI. Therefore, AI is also gaining relevance in many service settings. There are various reasons for this. First, there have been major developments in terms of the possible use cases for AI. These developments rest mainly on the improving power of new technologies and new ways to support frontline employees or even replace them, thus improving value creation by including large amounts of data during the encounter. Second, companies expect efficiency gains when using AI technologies. These expectations rest mainly on automation potential due to the use of AI. The instantaneous processing of data in market research may possibly be optimized by AI-based analytics. In addition, it is possible to take over tasks that occur with a high frequency and demand only a small degree of sophistication. The takeover of these tasks by AI allows employees to focus on other, more complex tasks