Should AI-Based, conversational digital assistants employ social- or task-oriented interaction style? A task-competency and reciprocity perspective for older adults
By Veena Chattaraman, Wi-Suk Kwon, J. Gilbert, Kassandra Ross. Computers in Human Behavior, 2019
414 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract This study investigates whether social- versus task-oriented interaction of virtual shopping assistants differentially benefits low versus high Internet competency older consumers with respect to social (perceived interactivity, trust), cognitive (perceived information load), functional (self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness), and behavioral intent (website patronage intent) outcomes in an online shopping task. A total of 121 older adults (61–89 years) participated in a laboratory experiment with a 2 (digital assistant interaction style: (social-vs. task-oriented) × 2 (user Internet competency: low vs. high) × 2 (user exchange modality: text vs. voice) between-subjects design. The results revealed that users' Internet competency and the digital assistant's conversational style had significant interaction effects on social, functional, and behavioral intent outcomes. Social-oriented digital assistants lead to superior social outcomes (enhanced perceptions of two-way interactivity and trust in the integrity of the site) for older users with high Internet competency, who need less task-related assistance. On the other hand, low-competency older users showed significantly superior cognitive (lower perceived information load) and functional outcomes (greater perceived ease and self-efficacy of using the site) when the digital assistant employed a task-oriented interaction style. Theoretical and agent design implications are discussed.
Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Demography, Marketing
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1eafe18bc117f11e493d209801c58e88f86a411b
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Artificial Intelligence
In Demography
In Marketing
Citations in the corpus
- Alexa, she's not human but… Unveiling the drivers of consumers' trust in voice‐based artificial intelligence (2021, background): “Therefore, the more the technology displays human ‐ like characteristics, such as face, voice, or gender, the more these kinds of cues may trigger schemas associated with human ‐ human interactions, including a sense of social presence (Chattaraman et al., 2019).”
- Hey Alexa ... examine the variables influencing the use of artificial intelligent in-home voice assistants (2019, background): “Accordingly, such social presence and social attractiveness may motivate individuals to engage with the AI technology in the same way as they would with other human counterparts (Sundar et al. 2017; Chattaraman et al. 2018).”
- The Moral Integrity Corpus: A Benchmark for Ethical Dialogue Systems (2022, neutral): ““chit chat” settings (Brandtzaeg and Følstad, 2017; Huang et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2021b) and in many other more structured domains (Gao et al., 2018; Chattaraman et al., 2019).”
- An Emerging Theory of Avatar Marketing (2021, background): “, the feeling of being with another person) and create feelings of human contact or connection (Chattaraman et al. 2019; Qiu and Benbasat 2009).”