AI and Emotions: review, synthesis and research agenda

This paper presents a systematic review of recent academic literature analysing the relationship between AI and emotions. To this end, 97 management/marketing articles published in WoS/Scopus Journals were analysed. This review shows that the topic of AI in relation to emotions is gaining momentum in marketing and service research. The results show that a new stream of research on the relationship between AI and emotions has emerged in the marketing literature, with articles favouring an interpretive lens based on an empathic view of AI. Therefore, we define a construct based on an empathic view of AI that transcends the dimension of pure automation and machine assistance in favour of an interactional dimension. We argue that research is needed both to develop a theory of the feeling economy and to pose research questions for further study. The study advances service management studies by systematising the concept and functions of AI in relation to emotions and identifying future development perspectives, and provides new insights for defining a service marketing construct in relation to AI and emotions.