E-Services, AI and Chatbots

This research area deals with digital business models and the impact of digital technologies on aspects of business models of companies, public and educational institutions. We focus on e-services and social media and the question of how digital technologies change existing business models and facilitate new ones.

The project focus deals with the use and the opportunities, techniques, challenges and consequences of digital technologies for e-services. Different types of digital technologies (social media, big data, artificial intelligence, assistance and dialogue systems, etc.) are focused on to enable new digital business models and services. These systems change the way business models and services are designed and used by stakeholders.

Companies can, for example, develop automated dialogue systems for business-to-customer interaction in e-commerce, for employee-employee interaction in companies or for company-candidate interaction in recruiting. By using AI-based advisory systems with the help of machine learning algorithms, large data sets can be scoured and evaluated. This allows to make individual recommendations and early predictions in many application fields. The quality and availability of the data itself as well as acceptance and trust are of crucial relevance for the effective and efficient use of digital business models and services.

Our goal is therefore on the one hand to develop systematic knowledge about business and technical requirements, success factors, implementation variants and further implications for individuals, markets, companies, institutions and other public bodies. On the other, together with our research focus on “Technology Acceptance and Use”, we investigate the acceptance and use of digital technologies as a further important factor for successful digital business models and services.

Current research projects in this research area include

• ADVICE: Influence of artificial intelligence on student diversity (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation)

The project focuses on the influence of artificial intelligence on student diversity and digital student advisory services. The research will contribute to the design of an AI-based advisory system to provide students with valuable data-driven information and individual recommendations for their professional and academic career decisions/paths, while at the same time promoting student diversity at German universities and technical colleges.