Even as artificial agents (AAs) become more prevalent in service encounters, customers continue to express generally unfavorable views of their creativity, which can lead to negative service evaluations. Drawing on anthropomorphism and group stereotyping literature, the authors propose a trait transference effect from human employees to AAs in dyadic service teams. The results of five studies confirm that an anthropomorphized (vs. nonanthropomorphized) AA paired with a creative employee boosts service evaluations, both attitudinal and behavioral. Anthropomorphism induces greater perceived entitativity of the AA–employee dyad, prompting customers to transfer the creativity exhibited by the employee to the AA and perceive the AA as more creative. This transference effect is attenuated when the temporal stability of the dyad is low, customers’ lay beliefs about group entitativity are challenged, or customers have utilitarian consumption goals. These results contribute novel insights about AAs in service teams, with compelling practical implications.

即使人工代理（AA）在服务体验中变得越来越普遍，客户仍然继续表达对其创造力的普遍不利看法，这可能导致负面的服务评价。借鉴拟人论和群体刻板印象文献，作者提出了二元服务团队中从人类员工到 AA 的特质转移效应。五项研究的结果证实，拟人化（与非拟人化）的 AA 与富有创造力的员工配对可以提高态度和行为方面的服务评估。拟人化使 AA 与员工二人组的实体性更强，促使客户将员工所表现出的创造力转移给 AA，并认为 AA 更具创造力。当二人组的时间稳定性较低、顾客对群体实体性的普遍信念受到挑战或者顾客有功利主义的消费目标时，这种移情效应就会减弱。这些结果为服务团队中的 AA 提供了新颖的见解，具有引人注目的实际意义。