The purpose of this paper is to explore the integration of Emotional Artificial Intelligence (EAI) – computing technologies capable of detecting, interpreting and responding to human emotions – into health-care service ecosystems to enhance well-being and address health inequities, aligning with the UN’s SDG 3 and SDG 10. This paper develops a multi-level collective framework to demonstrate how EAI can be implemented into health-care ecosystems and facilitate value co-creation.
Using the Theory of Change as an overarching structure, and through the lens of Service-Dominant Logic, the authors identify drivers to enable the integration of EAI at system, organization, provider and individual patient levels. This provides a background to a framework that incorporates a merger of the Health Belief Model and Technology Acceptance Model to explore EAI adoption at the patient level so that EAI then can facilitate co-created service value as patients progress through the Transtheoretical Model’s stages of behavioral change.
The analysis of the health-care ecosystem demonstrates the necessity for a collective framework rather than a singular one so that integration of EAI as a value creation tool can be achieved to enhance health-care delivery. Practical applications in telemedicine and mental health monitoring illustrate the framework’s relevance across diverse health-care contexts and the potential to address health-care inequities by increasing accessibility for underserved populations.
This paper contributes to the service marketing literature by presenting a multi-level, collective framework that aligns ecosystem-level service structures with patient-level adoption mechanisms using targeted behavioral models and value co-creation principles. The integration of Health Belief Model, Technology Acceptance Model and Transtheoretical Model under the umbrella of Theory of Change expands the potential for effective and efficient service value creation.
