What makes human service distinctly human in the AI era? Conceptualizing and measuring authentic relational service competency

As artificial intelligence (AI) service agents increasingly simulate human interaction, the basis for distinguishing human service has become theoretically ambiguous. While prior research consistently identifies authenticity as a key limitation of AI-enabled service, authenticity remains underdeveloped as a uniquely human service capability. Addressing this gap, we introduce Authentic Relational Service (ARS) as a distinct form of service through which frontline employees create genuine, contextually responsive, and relationship-centered customer interactions. We further conceptualize authenticity as a competency-based capability and develop a measure of Authentic Relational Service Competency (ARSC), which enables frontline employees to enact ARS. Using established scale-development procedures, this study identifies and validates four dimensions of ARSC: perspective-taking, patience, creativity, and agility. By conceptualizing and operationalizing Authentic Relational Service as a distinct human service capability, this research advances theory on human-AI service differentiation and provides a foundation for understanding uniquely human value creation in service contexts.