Summary:
The constant advancements in the field of technology and specifically in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are gaining attention from researchers and practitioners (Lu et al., 2020). Despite potential benefits, many customers remain uncomfortable with using robots (Lu et al., 2020). According to academic literature, customers may have mixed feelings toward AI robotic device usage, especially in the service context (Lin et al., 2020). This is not surprising considering that technological advancements induce fear and lack of trust at the beginning (Etemad-Sajadi et al., 2022). The current research aims to examine user perceptions of robots with extended AI knowledge. More specifically, the empirical study will look at participants’ assessment of four ethical items – trust and safety, autonomy, privacy and data protection, and replacement, with the goal to understand better which one/s is important for the customer’s intention to use a service robot, which to our knowledge is the first academic research to do so.