How Artificial Intelligence impacts the customer experience

Abstract

The increasing use of AI technologies such as chatbots by retailers is leading academics andpractitioners to recognise their impact on the customer experience. Although research shows thatconsumers generally prefer to deal with humans rather than robots, it has also shown that embed-ding virtual agents into online retail and service websites leads to positive customer outcomes. Inthis paper, we investigate the presence of intelligent, disembodied virtual agents (i.e., AI chatbots)in an online shopping context and extend the study to include human-like cues such as conversa-tional style and avatar that can improve the customer experience. We conduct two online exper-iments (N = 77 and 143) with real chatbot conversations in a simulated online store to test thepremises of our study. Study 1 showed no differences between the presence and absence of a chat-bot on participants’ customer experience. The interaction effect in Study 2 (conversation style xavatar type) also proved to be non-significant. Nonetheless, in line with previous studies, signifi-cant evidence of perceived humanness, personalization, and social support was found, opening thedoor for further research. The paper concludes with practical implications for retailers using AI chatbots for their customers.