Presentation at the WI 2025

On September 16, Maximilian Meiler presented a paper on "Humanoid Service Robots and Service Quality: Insights from a Bank Branch Prototype", joint work with Rainer Alt and Lars Hornuf, at the 20^th International Conference Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI 2025) in Münster.

© WI2025

In their study, the authors explore how interacting with a humanoid service robot affects customers’ perception of service quality in a bank branch. We deployed a prototype of the humanoid robot Pepper to assist customers with online banking troubleshooting and to provide interactive entertainment and information. Over a two-week field study, we observed 154 human–robot interactions. The results are mixed. The prototype did not improve perceived service quality for in-person support for online banking due to the robot’s technical limitations and three customer-related factors: inexperience, misaligned expectations, and impatience. The prototype did effectively serve as a medium for entertainment and information, eliciting positive social-emotional responses and encouraging interactions among customers. The findings indicate that, despite its limited operational value, the prototype can enhance an organization’s innovative image. Customers’ observed preference for touchscreen-based rather than verbal interaction underscores the necessity for further investigation into effective modes of interaction between customers and humanoid robots.

You can access a summary of the paper here: https://www.wi2025.de/ai-summaries/

The full paper will soon be published in the WI conference proceedings series (VHB: B)