In cobotic service teams, employees and robots collaborate to serve customers. As cobotic teams become more prevalent, a key question arises: How do consumers respond to cobotic teams as a function of the roles shared by employees and robots? A series of studies, conducted in different healthcare settings, show that consumers respond less favorably to robot-led (vs. human-led) teams. In delineating the process underlying these responses, we demonstrate that consumers ascribe less power to robot (vs. human) team leaders, which increases consumer anxiety and drives downstream responses through serial mediation. Further examining the power dynamics in cobotic service encounters, the authors identify boundary conditions that help mitigate negative consumer responses.
