Can service technologies make you feel justice like human agents?

Purpose The widespread integration of service technologies has highlighted the need to effectively manage technology-based service failures and recoveries. This study aims to analyze how different types of service failures and service agents impact perceptions of service justice and, consequently, how they influence revisit intentions in technology-embedded restaurants. Design/methodology/approach This research conducts a 2×2 between-subjects scenario-based experimental design and self-report questionnaire survey. Findings The results reveal that service process failures have a more substantial negative impact on procedural, interactional and distributive justice than outcome failures. To address these failures, humans are more effective than technology agents in restoring service justice. Significant interaction effects show that procedural and distributive justice are lowest when technology agents handle process-related service failures. The effects of service failure and recovery types on revisit intentions are mediated by service justice. Originality/value This research expands the scope of services marketing literature by synthesizing service justice theory and role congruity theory to explain how justice is perceived in technology-embedded restaurant environments. The study demonstrates that service justice remains critical in technology-driven service failures and recoveries, and that humans play a particularly important role in restoring justice. These findings offer both theoretical and practical implications for managing justice in technology-mediated service interactions.