The Effect of Required Warmth on Consumer Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence in Service: The Moderating Role of AI-human Collaboration

Chenming Peng*, Jenny van Doorn, Felix Eggers, Jaap E. Wieringa

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Recent technological advances allow artificial intelligence (AI) to perform tasks that require high warmth, such as caring, understanding others’ feelings, and being friendly. However, current consumers may be reluctant to accept AI for such tasks. This research investigates the impact of required warmth to conduct a task on consumer acceptance of AI service and the moderating role of AI-human collaboration. A series of choice-based conjoint experiments and one survey yield two main findings. First, consumers tend to refuse AI for tasks that require high warmth due to the low perceived fit between AI and the task at hand. Second, an AI-human collaboration of AI supporting a human employee increases consumer acceptance of AI service for tasks that require high warmth. This is not the case for AI-human collaboration in which AI performs a task that is supervised by a human employee. Theoretically, this study increases our understanding of how consumer acceptance of AI service varies across tasks and how AI-human collaboration can advance AI acceptance. These findings provide insightful suggestions for managers regarding designing AI service and framing AI-human collaboration.
Original languageEnglish
Article number102533
JournalInternational Journal of Information Management
Volume66
Number of pages11
ISSN0268-4012
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022

Keywords

  • AI acceptance
  • Required warmth
  • AI-human collaboration
  • AI service

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