Customer delight in AI-driven services

• This work reconceptualizes customer delight in AI service interactions. • A multimethod approach is applied to develop a useful, novel scale to measure it. • The effects of customer delight on key relevant marketing outcomes are unveiled. • The structure of customer delight is assessed between different AI-based services. The presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the service context is bursting forth in numerous applications, leading customers to experience emotional reactions in important ways that have strategic implications for marketers. In this research, we reconceptualize the construct of customer delight in AI service interactions. Drawing on previous frameworks and seminal literature about AI service, customer delight, and literature on emotions, we applied a multimethod approach to unveil the elements of customer delight in AI service interactions, build a useful, novel scale to measure it, and test its effects on key relevant marketing outcomes. We also shed light on which aspects of customer delight are most relevant for different types of AI services. Finally, we give practical suggestions to managers and practitioners on how to make AI services delightful, drawing a useful roadmap in a rapidly evolving landscape.