Chapter 7: Responsible Service Management in a Post-Truth Era: Curating Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (TAI) in Service 4.0

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionised the service landscape, from virtual assistants and chatbots to algorithm-based recommendations and autonomous systems. While businesses are drawn to AI for its benefits of hyper-personalisation, enhanced efficiency, and cost reduction, these applications may be disrupting something even more fundamental: consumer trust and societal well-being. The surging development of AI challenges the very notion of truth in services, blurring the boundaries between reality and misinformation, and between interpersonal and parasocial interactions. This chapter focuses on the critical issue of AI-generated misinformation and its impact on responsible service management (RSM). It aims to initiate discourse on designing and implementing trustworthy AI (TAI) in services, with particular emphasis on mitigating both unintentional AI hallucinations and intentional AI disinformation. Through an examination of controversial industry cases, this chapter compares the multi-faceted implications of (ir)responsible AI in services on diverse stakeholders. It introduces a bifurcated approach to addressing AI misinformation: a back-of-house anticipation strategy for unintentional errors, and a front-of-house mitigation strategy for intentional disinformation. The discussion extends to the challenges of one-size-fits-all approach in responsible AI deployment, offering insights for service practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.