Robots in welfare services: A systematic literature review

New service robots are increasingly being adopted to improve and even radically transform and innovate (public) service delivery such as healthcare, eldercare, and education. Yet, organization-oriented research on how these new technologies impact people, processes, and services is very limited. In this paper, I argue for the importance of studying these issues from an (public) organization-oriented and information system research perspective. I review and discuss current literature on the major advances of robotics in welfare services as an emerging and interdisciplinary research topic, exploring the current state of the art and present a foundation to guide future research. Particular emphasis is given to organizational challenges concerning implementation and value realization.