Examines AI impact on service delivery in robot restaurants, suggesting effective AI alignment enhances customer experience.
Service robots are increasingly adopted in restaurants, yet it remains unclear how firms convert AI investments into operational agility and customer service performance. Drawing on real options theory, hybrid intelligence, and parasocial relationship perspective, this study examines how AI climate, customer–AI assisted exchange (CAIX), and business process innovativeness enhance robot agility, which subsequently improves operational adjustment agility and customer service competencies. Using two independent survey waves from robot-assisted restaurants in Shanghai and Taipei and follow-up practitioner interviews, analyzed with PLS-SEM, the results show that robot agility is the central mechanism translating AI investments into service outcomes. Perceived anthropomorphism strengthens the effect of robot agility on customer service competencies but does not influence operational adjustment agility. The findings demonstrate that effective AI-enabled service depends on aligning organizational readiness, customer intelligence, and adaptive workflows to deliver responsive, personalised, and reliable service.
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Ku et al. (2026) studied this question.
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