Exploring consumers' response to AI chatbots in e-commerce: The moderating role of task complexity..

We interact with Artificial Intelligence more and more, so we wanted to model this interaction. We have four findings: First, the consumers’ perception of both the empathy and friendliness of the chatbot, positively impact their trust in it. Second, task complexity negatively influences the relationship between friendliness and consumers’ trust. Third, disclosure of the text-based chatbot negatively influences the relationship between empathy and the consumers’ trust, but it positively influences the relationship between friendliness and consumers’ trust. Fourth, consumers’ trust in the chatbot, increases their reliance on the chatbot, and decreases their resistance to the chatbot in future interactions. Reference: Cheng X., Bao Y., Zarifis A., Gong W. & Mou J. (2021) ‘Exploring consumers' response to text-based chatbots in e-commerce: The moderating role of task complexity and chatbot disclosure’, Internet Research. Available from (open access): https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-08-2020-0460