Human Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Augmentation
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Paper Type
Complete
Paper Number
1415
Description
Fueled by recent technological advancements, chatbots are more frequently used in the online customer service landscape. As chatbots are more and more capable to pose as humans, the question for firms arises whether they should disclose their chatbots’ non-human identity or not. While identity disclosure seems to be the intuitive approach as it promotes transparency, previous research shows that disclosure comes at the cost of lower interaction efficiency, as many consumers today are still skeptical towards chatbots. This research adds to solving this chatbot disclosure dilemma by considering the mediating role of trust in the conversational partner and service-related context factors to understand the repercussions of chatbot disclosure for customer retention. Results of two scenario-based experimental studies show that depending on service context, chatbot disclosure does not only have negative consequences, but can lead to positive outcomes as well.
Recommended Citation
Mozafari, Nika; Weiger, Welf H.; and Hammerschmidt, Maik, "The Chatbot Disclosure Dilemma: Desirable and Undesirable Effects of Disclosing the Non-Human Identity of Chatbots" (2020). ICIS 2020 Proceedings. 6.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2020/hci_artintel/hci_artintel/6
The Chatbot Disclosure Dilemma: Desirable and Undesirable Effects of Disclosing the Non-Human Identity of Chatbots
Fueled by recent technological advancements, chatbots are more frequently used in the online customer service landscape. As chatbots are more and more capable to pose as humans, the question for firms arises whether they should disclose their chatbots’ non-human identity or not. While identity disclosure seems to be the intuitive approach as it promotes transparency, previous research shows that disclosure comes at the cost of lower interaction efficiency, as many consumers today are still skeptical towards chatbots. This research adds to solving this chatbot disclosure dilemma by considering the mediating role of trust in the conversational partner and service-related context factors to understand the repercussions of chatbot disclosure for customer retention. Results of two scenario-based experimental studies show that depending on service context, chatbot disclosure does not only have negative consequences, but can lead to positive outcomes as well.
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