smart services summit, zurich, switzerland, 2024: supporting the value co-creation in industrial contexts

This book presents up-to-date descriptions of smart service innovations in industry, supported by new scientific approaches. It summarizes the outcomes of the sixth Smart Services Summit, held in Zurich, Switzerland in October 2024, which primarily focused on digital co-creation in the smart services era and the transformative power of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in service ecosystems.

The book explores the dynamics of value co-creation and examines how digital tools and artificial intelligence are enhancing interactions between service providers and consumers to innovate and improve service delivery. It covers a range of pertinent topics including the automation of customer engagement, the role of data analytics in understanding value perception, and the ethical considerations of AI in services. It also presents case studies that illustrate successful applications of AI in service design, offering readers a comprehensive view of how these technologies are fostering innovative co-creation practices.

With contributions from leading academics and industry experts, this publication is essential for anyone interested in the future of service industries. It provides a scholarly yet accessible examination of how digital tools are not only reshaping service interactions but also establishing new paradigms for business and customer experiences in the digital age.

Shaun West lectures in Smart Service Innovation at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland). In this role, he works closely with industry to better understand the application and development of Smart Services in industrial settings. He collaborates with several universities, including Stanford, Aston Business School, Florence, and Bergamo. He is also coordinating a Swiss 1MUSD project on the use of Smart Twins in complex industrial applications. Having previously worked for GE Energy Services (Italy), as VP Business Development at Sulzer (Switzerland), and for RWE (UK), Shaun holds an M.B.A. from HEC (Paris) and a Ph.D. from Imperial College London.

Jürg Meierhofer holds a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich and an Executive M.B.A. from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He is the director of studies for Smart Service Engineering at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and the head of the Smart Services Group at the data innovation alliance. The optimization and design of Smart Services are hallmarks of his activities in various industries. He is currently the director of studies for executive education in the field of Smart Service Engineering and Industry 4.0 at ZHAW.

Thierry Buecheler is the head of the Business Value & Strategy team at Oracle EMEA, where he spearheads strategic initiatives and delivers exceptional management consulting services. He has extensive experience at the interface of business and IT in several sectors and industries: Before joining Oracle, he was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in Europe, North America, and Africa and a visiting researcher at NEC Tokyo, Japan. Before that, he worked for two Swiss banks in the IT and strategy departments. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence from the University of Zurich and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Giulia Wally Scurati is a post doc researcher at Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden. She obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering with honors from Politecnico di Milano. During her PhD research, she experimented with visualisation, gamification, persuasive technologies, and multi-sensory feedback to drive sustainable product development and pro-environmental and pro-social user behaviour. She currently focuses on the development of mixed reality collaborative platforms and serious games to support awareness in the industry and sustainable innovation in multidisciplinary teams.