Artificial intelligence in services: current trends, benefits and challenges

The automation of services taking advantage of the significant opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and other Industry 4.0 technologies is receiving increasing attention both from academics and practitioners. Interest in the subject has been boosted significantly by the healthcare crisis generated by COVID-19 and the need to maintain social distancing while continuing to provide efficient services. The purpose of this brief paper is threefold: (i) to introduce and summarize the current state of automated forms of interaction in services; (ii) to provide an overview of the six papers published in this special issue; and (iii) to describe the possibilities for future research that emerged at the AIRSI2019 (Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Service Interactions) Conference. The AIRSI2019 conference was the precursor to this special issue and provided an excellent opportunity to explore with leading international researchers the extraordinary development possibilities presented in this research context.