Where does Artificial Agents fit in service science?

It's time to get into the business!

I want to start with a discussion on artificial agents and where they (artificial agents) fit in this big picture (puzzle?) of Service Science.

Simply put, artificial agents enable us to simulate and study complex systems comprising them. These agents are bounded rational, autonomous entities who interact with other agents (and the environment) based on a simple set of behavioral rules. For example, suppose you are a pedestrian. When you are commuting in the morning rush hour from your apartment to the station, how do you behave? You may rely on the available information such as the train schedule, current time, signal lights and possible access routes to the station. You may avoid being hit on a fellow commuter by stopping or stepping aside. You may stop at a junction to cross the road until the green light appears or you may stop or slow down to make a glimpse at a billboard advertisement. Not to forget that you run when your clock says you are too late to the train!

Now, what would happen if thousands of commuters together with hundreds of drivers, dozens of signal lights, plenty of billboard adds, several train schedules, etc.? Traffic...isn't it? Traffic is an emergent property of this complex system of commuting agents and their local interactions. Similarly, the local behaviors of artificial agents lead to different emergent properties in the system being simulated.  Given that analyzing a system by decomposition is not effective in studying systemic outcomes, and mathematical modeling leads to unnecessary simplifications, artificial agents provide an alternative means of studying complex systems. If you are interested in studying agent-based modeling and simulation, you may read the work of Robert Axelrod, Nigel Gilbert, Joshua Epstein, Kathleen Carley, Takao Terano, etc.

Getting back to our topic, how can these artificial agents be used in the emerging domain of service science or service marketing?

Let me draw your attention to the definitions of service science and service systems on the sidebar. The objective of service science is to study and understand service systems. A service system comprises many actors rendering services to each other to co-create value. Therefore, studying service systems means studying those complex value co-creating customer-provider (actor to actor) interactions, outcomes and relationships. Unarguably, these interactions are dynamic, customers and providers are learning (and adaptive) and hence, the service systems are evolving!

Doesn't artificial agent-based research methodology sounds cool here?