Service in the humanity-centered AI era: Some thoughts and reflections

This article captures some thoughts and reflections on the topic of “service in the humanitycenter AI era” presented Friday February 17th, 2023, in an online invited presentation to attendees of the 13th International Conference on Exploring Service Science (IESS 2.3) being held in Geneva, Switzerland [1]. A hoped-for promise of AI as a technology is to bring productivity and quality increases to what economists call the service sector, as previous generations of technology did for agriculture and manufacturing. Both service science and artificial Intelligence (AI) have made significant progress as communities of practice and academic disciplines in their respective, 20 years and nearly 70 years histories. Nevertheless, both AI and service science still have a long way to go to achieve their potential for transdisciplinary harmonization. Responsible actors, informed by progress in these two disciplines, are upskilling and learning to invest more systematically and wisely in improved win-win interaction and change for all stakeholders to get and give trusted service.