PhD Researcher: AI-driven Employee-Customer Relationship Management in the Service Sector Vlerick Business School in Chile

Vlerick Business School is offering a 4-year PhD Researcher position on AI-driven Employee-Customer Relationship Management in the Service Sector. The project is hosted by Vlerick’s Area Marketing & Sales team in collaboration with Glowi, a Belgian service company active in cleaning services, marketing solutions, HR solutions, and related operations. The research is designed to combine rigorous academic work with direct business impact, focusing on how data analytics, machine learning, generative AI, and AI agents can create measurable value in a real organisational setting.

The PhD will investigate employee-customer relationship management across acquisition, development, and retention in the cleaning services sector. Possible themes include AI-driven employee and customer acquisition, consultant coaching effects on development and churn, skills/knowledge/behaviour matching in recruitment and retention, employee absenteeism and performance modelling, pricing and price sensitivity analysis, hyper-personalised communication using genAI, and process automation using genAI and reinforcement learning. The project uses real-world client and employee data from Glowi and is intended to produce both academic outputs and practical tools that support business KPIs.

As a PhD Researcher, you will conduct academic and applied research, including data collection, modelling, AI agent development, evaluation, reporting, and dissemination through papers, workshops, presentations, and other formats for both academic and business audiences. You will work closely with faculty, researchers, Glowi’s Data & AI team, and business stakeholders. The role is based at one of Vlerick’s campuses in Ghent or Brussels and the Glowi office, offering an international and collegial environment.

Applicants should hold a master’s degree in business analytics, business engineering, artificial intelligence, data science, business administration, economics, computer science, civil engineering, statistics, mathematics, or a related equivalent. Strong academic performance is preferred, ideally with distinctions at bachelor’s and master’s level. The school is looking for candidates with a business mindset, good communication skills, independence, analytical strength, and solid programming abilities in Python and SQL. Knowledge of machine learning and data analytics is required; experience with Microsoft Fabric and Azure is a plus. Fluency in Dutch and English is required, and applicants should have excellent writing skills. If available, TOEFL/IELTS and GRE results can be included.

Funding is provided as salary aligned with the scales at Ghent University. The position is a PhD opening, not a postdoctoral or master’s role. Interested candidates should apply through the online application form with a CV, motivation letter, and transcripts. For more information, the contact person for the job content is Philippe Baecke.