Doctoral Researcher (PhD Position) in Conversational AI for Customer and Employee Interactions / Doctoral Researcheress (PhD Position) in Conversational AI for Customer and Employee Interactions

Doctoral Researcher (PhD Position) in Conversational AI for Customer and Employee Interactions

100%, Zurich, fixed-term

The Technology Marketing Group, founded by Florian von Wangenheim in 2013, is a pioneering research group at ETH Zurich dedicated to exploring the intersection of marketing, technology, and societal impact. Together with its associated centres and labs, we investigate how to effectively market innovative offerings and how emerging technologies transform the relationship between organisations and their stakeholders.

The current PhD position offers an exciting opportunity to work with two centres within the Chair on managerially-relevant applied research:

• The Mobiliar Lab for Analytics: This lab develops and tests digital interactions using emerging technologies and artificial intelligence. As a joint initiative of ETH Zurich and a Swiss insurer, we focus on exploring the benefits of emerging technologies balanced against their dark sides. Our research at the intersection of data, behavioural, and computer science draws on data from real-world and experimental settings.
• The Centre for AI Value: This centre identifies and implements AI applications to generate economic value. It bridges academic AI research with practical business applications, focusing on customer service, multimodal data modelling, and process automation.

Project Background

During your PhD, you will examine how conversational AI can be deployed effectively for frontline service interactions with customers or as a support tool for employees. Projects will explore success factors in designing and deploying Conversational AI. This could include, for example, varying technical foundations (e.g., prompt engineering, fine-tuning, model architecture, and retrieval strategies), usage contexts (e.g., routine vs. special services), or unique individual-level factors (e.g., personality profile, AI literacy) to ensure Conversational AI is optimized for its deployment context and contributes to excellent customer service and workplace efficiency. Research output will therefore have clear managerial relevance.

Research activities will involve analysis of primary and secondary data in both controlled and field settings. The successful candidate will shape projects and research questions within this overarching scope while working alongside closely with industry partners and reacting to emergent research opportunities.

Job Description

We are currently seeking a doctoral researcher with both technical knowledge and skills related to the technical foundations of conversational AI and domain knowledge on how and why it can be deployed effectively. You should have skills in both data analytics (e.g., machine learning, statistics, econometrics) and behavioural sciences (e.g., experimental design, survey research, application/development of managerially relevant theory). Software engineering skills (e.g., REST API development, SQL/NoSQL databases, cloud deployment (AWS/Azure/GCP), Docker) are also very welcome.

You will need to be highly flexible and responsive to emerging opportunities with partners from industry. The candidate should be highly motivated to drive projects forward and network across Switzerland.

Responsibilities

• Using data and technology to conduct managerially relevant research.
• Collaborating with experts and industry partners.
• Attending international conferences to share your work.
• Publishing in top scientific journals in Marketing and Information Systems fields (e.g., Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Management Information Systems Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Decision Support Systems, etc.).
• Communicating and engaging with the public.
• Providing teaching support and supervision under the umbrella of the Chair of Technology Marketing, D-MTEC.

Profile

Essential Requirements:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.
• Master's degree that blends managerial know-how and technical skills (e.g., AI Systems and Engineering Management, Business Analytics, Quantitative Marketing, Applied Artificial Intelligence).
• Strong domain knowledge in the topic of Conversational AI.
• Strong general interest in the intersection between technology and management.
• Proficiency in all stages of quantitative data analyses (e.g., using Python or R) from data wrangling and feature engineering to running and evaluating models.
• Comfortable taking a lead role in research meetings with project partners and networking in Switzerland.
• Highly organized with exemplary project management skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary team.

Desirable Requirements:

• Fluency or native proficiency in German is highly desirable.
• Technical experience on how to implement Conversational AI in managerial settings.
• Technical experience with transformer models.
• Familiarity with mixed methods research.
• Software engineering skills (e.g., REST API development, SQL/NoSQL databases, cloud deployment (AWS/Azure/GCP), Docker).
• Experience working in research and/or academia.

Workplace

ETH Zurich: ETH Zurich is one of the world's leading universities specializing in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research, and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, we forge connections all over the world to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.

We Offer

• Your job with impact: Become part of ETH Zurich, which not only supports your professional development but also actively contributes to positive change in society.
• You can expect numerous benefits, such as public transport season tickets, car sharing, a wide range of sports offered by the ASVZ, childcare, and attractive pension benefits.

We Value Diversity and Sustainability

In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity, and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Sustainability is a core value for us - we are consistently working towards a climate-neutral future.

Curious? So Are We!

Apply online using the form below. Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.

For further information about the research groups involved, please visit our websites: techmarketing.ethz.ch, mobiliarlab.ethz.ch, aivalue.ethz.ch. Informal inquiries regarding the position can be directed to Dr. Joseph Ollier at jollier@ethz.ch (no applications).