Hybrid service agency: human–robot collaboration and workforce transformation in hospitality and tourism

Service organisations deploying robots into frontline operations face a challenge beyond employee acceptance: whether human-robot teams can generate outcomes unattainable by either partner alone. This paper introduces Hybrid Service Agency (HSA), defined as the capacity of human-robot teams to create synergistic workforce and service outcomes, and identifies the conditions under which HSA emerges, persists, or breaks down. Using hospitality and tourism as a high-contact service context, we conducted a PRISMA-compliant systematic quantitative literature review of 129 peer-reviewed articles (Scopus, 2017–2026). The analysis combined keyword co-occurrence mapping, bibliographic coupling, Louvain community detection, and inductive thematic synthesis. Six bibliometric communities emerged, spanning service triad dynamics, collaboration antecedents, employee adaptation, identity reconstruction, workforce threat appraisal, and organisational governance. The resulting HSA framework advances four propositions centred on psychological empowerment, triadic role design, organisational governance, and threat appraisal as a breakdown pathway. Findings offer transferable governance insights for healthcare, retail, and professional services.