Chatbots for service delivery and co-creation: a study from the user's perspective

Overview

Chatbots, also known as digital customer service agents or virtual assistants, are poised to transform delivery and co-creation of customer service over the next few years.

However, there are still many challenges, such as technological limitations and user's perception of value, that affect how customers use chatbots. Why do many customer not want to use chatbots at this time? What do customers really think about using chatbots in a service delivery and co-creation context?

Research activities

You need to conduct a systematic review of academic and grey literature and/or conduct an empirical research in the public service sector.

The empirical work may include conducting a set of interviews with customers, designers of chatbots and/or managers of one or more public service organization.

If you are/want to be a PhD student, you will need to conduct a deeper literature review and empirical research. Masters of Philosophy and honours students may spend less amount of time on the research project and may only conduct an exploratory study.

Outcomes

We expect the following outcomes as part of our research:

• a standalone literature review work, which could be a typology of chatbots based on the factors such as different types of services and customer circumstances
• an empirical study that provides deep insights into the motivations of users about using chatbots (what they really think about using chatbots in the context of public services)
• publishing at least one paper in an academic outlet.

Skills and experience

We expect you to have the following skills and experiences:

• professional discipline (e.g. meeting deadlines and research milestones)
• some skills of literature review and qualitative research is required (PhD)
• you may need to use a quantitative research method such as survey or experiment study, so you need to be willing to learn it while you are doing the research
  • it is ideal if you have used these methods in your previous research projects
• academic writing skills.

Scholarships

You may be able to apply for a research scholarship in our annual scholarship round.

Annual scholarship round

Keywords

• chatbot
• bot
• service delivery
• service co-creation

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.