Marketing

World Wide Web

Employee engagement

Service (business)

Moderation

Social psychology

Public relations

Mediation

Customer advocacy

Computer science

Business

Customer retention

Service quality

Process management

Psychology

Loyalty business model

Social media

Political science

Sociology

Loyalty

Knowledge management

Customer engagement

Customer service

Social science

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Artificial intelligence (AI) permeates in service organisations as a tool to enhance operational efficiency and improve customer experience. Reports show that most consumers prefer human interactions with service employees. Drawing on this observation, the current study examines how customers' service experiences with employees and AI influence customer engagement and loyalty. Customers' emotional intelligence is proposed as a moderator between service experience and customer engagement. The study was conducted with hotel customers in Australia. The results show that whilst both service experience with employees and AI are significantly related to customer engagement and loyalty, only certain dimensions make significant unique variances in the outcome variables. The findings indicate that customers prefer employee service. These service experiences also have significant partial mediation effects on customer loyalty. Emotional intelligence has a significant moderation effect on customer engagement. Discussion of these findings and implications derived from this study concludes this paper.

Engaging and retaining customers with AI and employee service