... customers and how to serve them. Design/methodology/approach The current paper is a conceptual one that draws upon research from many areas to support the ideas proposed. Findings AI customer are proliferating. AI as customers can augment or replace human customers and can be the customer itself...

... to understand the augmentation or substitution role of service robots in driving utilitarian and hedonic value and ultimately customer repatronage. Design/methodology/approach In study 1, field data are collected from customers (n = 108) who interacted with a service robot and FLE in a fast casual...