THE ROBOT AS A CONSUMER: A RESEARCH AGENDA
Станислав Христов Иванов, Craig Webster · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2017
In search of greater productivity, efficiency and improved competitiveness, companies from all sectors of the economy have started to adopt robots and artificial intelligence for producing product, delivering products, communicating with customers, etc. Recent technological advances made robots accessible to consumers as well (e.g. intelligent digital assistants, home cleaning robots, cooking robots, etc.). The consumer robots are currently perceived simply as technological products, produced by companies and sold to final customers. However, the current and future functionalities of home robots (will) allow them to search, filter, select and purchase various products and services on behalf of their owners. This means that they (will) interfere in the consumer behaviour of their owners by determining the options their owners can choose from. This raises the question whether it is really the robot owner who makes the decision for purchase or it is the robot (and the AI algorithm behind it) that has greater share in the final decision than its owner himself. Hence, in the future, companies should target not only the customers but also their home robots who will make many of the actual purchases.