AI in Business and Society
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Paper Number
1750
Paper Type
Completed
Description
This research investigates how and why chatbot-initiated service interruptions influence customers’ service experience as well as a choice-based mitigation strategy. Based on the psychological reactance theory, we posit that a service interruption caused by chatbot failures trigger customers’ psychological reactance manifested through anger and negative cognition. We further propose that the negative impact of chatbot-initiated interruption on service evaluations can be explained through the affective process of increased anger and the cognitive process of decreased perceived competence of the chatbot (caused by increased negative cognition). Based on these mechanisms, we suggest choice provision as a strategy to mitigate the negative impact of chatbot failures on anger and negative cognition. Results from two laboratory experiments substantiate our claims. By unveiling why chatbot-induced interruption hurts service evaluations and a mitigation strategy, we augment the current understanding of AI failures and provide insights for the deployment of (imperfect) AI applications in customer service.
Recommended Citation
Han, Elizabeth; Yin, Dezhi; and Zhang, Han, "Interruptions during a service encounter: Dealing with imperfect chatbots" (2021). ICIS 2021 Proceedings. 6.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2021/ai_business/ai_business/6
Interruptions during a service encounter: Dealing with imperfect chatbots
This research investigates how and why chatbot-initiated service interruptions influence customers’ service experience as well as a choice-based mitigation strategy. Based on the psychological reactance theory, we posit that a service interruption caused by chatbot failures trigger customers’ psychological reactance manifested through anger and negative cognition. We further propose that the negative impact of chatbot-initiated interruption on service evaluations can be explained through the affective process of increased anger and the cognitive process of decreased perceived competence of the chatbot (caused by increased negative cognition). Based on these mechanisms, we suggest choice provision as a strategy to mitigate the negative impact of chatbot failures on anger and negative cognition. Results from two laboratory experiments substantiate our claims. By unveiling why chatbot-induced interruption hurts service evaluations and a mitigation strategy, we augment the current understanding of AI failures and provide insights for the deployment of (imperfect) AI applications in customer service.
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