Purpose

The aim of the paper is to bring together the state-of-the-art research and theory from the communication and service research fields to examine the implications of new technologies for the future of service communication.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors apply the media affordances perspective to develop an overarching framework that facilitates theoretical conceptualization and research question formulation on the constantly evolving technology-enabled communication formats.

Findings

Central to the forward-looking framework of service communication facilitated by new technologies, this paper identifies various affordances at the service frontline where service customers and providers interact with the technologies. Customers are empowered to expand their roles blurring the role distinction between service providers and customers. Depending on what kind of relationships service providers form with the emerging technologies, they may develop new service communication strategies and new interaction possibilities with customers. As a result, the technologies' affordances would facilitate value creation outcomes that can manifest in the external (whether it is in the physical or digital space) and/or internal (one's own mind) spaces. Applying the affordances framework, the authors map out four key areas of future research regarding new technologies in service communication: (1) social media technologies; (2) multisensory reality-enhancing technologies; (3) AI-enabled voice assistants; and (4) AI-driven service robots.

Originality/value

This paper proposes an original theoretical framework to stimulate and guide future research and theory development regarding the implications of new technologies in the constantly evolving and complex service communication landscape.

中文翻译：

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服务通信技术：展望

目的

本文的目的是汇集来自通信和服务研究领域的最新研究和理论，以检验新技术对未来服务通信的影响。

设计/方法/方法

作者运用媒体可供性的观点来开发一个总体框架，以促进对不断发展的技术支持的通信格式的理论概念化和研究问题的制定。

发现

作为新技术促进的前瞻性服务通信框架的核心，本文确定了服务客户和提供者与技术交互的服务前沿的各种可供性。客户有权扩展其角色，从而模糊了服务提供商和客户之间的角色区别。根据服务提供商与新兴技术形成什么样的关系，他们可能会开发新的服务沟通策略和与客户的新交互可能性。因此，技术的可供性将促进可以在外部（无论是在物理空间还是数字空间）和/或内部（自己的思想）空间中体现的价值创造结果。应用可供性框架，作者列出了有关服务通信新技术的未来研究的四个关键领域：（1）社交媒体技术；(2) 多感官现实增强技术；(3) 人工智能语音助手；(4) 人工智能驱动的服务机器人。

原创性/价值

本文提出了一个原创的理论框架，以刺激和指导未来关于新技术在不断发展和复杂的服务通信领域的影响的研究和理论发展。