The Emergence of the Service Techonomy: POPP at the Frontlines and the Rise of AI-Mediated Service Influence

Abstract

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), data infrastructures, and platform technologies are reshaping services and organizational frontlines. We conceptualize this shift as the emergence of the “service techonomy,” in which omni-personalization manifests via Prescribed, Omnipresent, and Personalized Persuasion (POPP; e.g., such that AI-driven agents guide frontline service interactions, determine service access and offers for consumers, and monitor and steer frontline employees). We derive four functional forms of POPP—interactive, pre-emptive, allocative, and governing—and organize them in a 2 × 2 matrix based on the timing of influence (reactive vs. proactive) and mode of influence (constraining vs. supportive). Anchored in evolutionary economics and the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions, our framework shifts attention from isolated technology and personalization features toward broader configurations of AI-mediated influence that shape service value creation, extraction, governance, and potentially inequality across customers, employees, and collectives in service ecosystems. This perspective provides a foundation for future theory building, measurement, and responsible design of AI-mediated services and organizational frontline research.