Abstract
As an emerging domain of Information Systems (IS) research, conversational agents (CAs) increasingly blend with human-computer interaction (HCI) phenomena. Popular use cases, such as task support or customer service, reveal multiple touchpoints that may influence the interaction between a human and a CA. Especially in work scenarios, characteristics such as competence and sympathy become relevant. Consequently, CAs are often represented by male or female avatars and enhanced with social cues. Therefore, it is essential to understand the influences of social cues such as gender on the perception of CAs in a digital work setting. Consequently, we focus on the impact of gender-specific social cues of CAs on users' perceptions of sympathy and competence towards the CA. To explore this, the study is based on a between-subjects experiment (N = 179, three conditions). The results indicate that gender-specific social cues positively affect perceptions of sympathy and competence. However, the findings do not show a difference between male and female CAs.
Recommended Citation
Brünker, Felix; Hofeditz, Lennart; and Lekscha, Jana, "How Social Cues Influence the Perception of AI-based
Conversational Agents in Digital Work towards AI Identity
and Trust" (2025). ACIS 2025 Proceedings. 47.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2025/47