Interactivity, humanness, and trust: a psychological approach to AI chatbot adoption in e-commerce

This study aims to investigate the impact of interactivity and perceived humanness on trust toward AI chatbots in the e-commerce setting. Moreover, this study also aims to examine the mediation effect of trust toward AI chatbots in the relationship between interactivity and intention to adopt AI chatbots for e-commerce as well as in the relationship between perceived humanness and intention to adopt chatbots for e-commerce. This study used a time lag approach to collect the data from 343 customers from the southern region of China. The data were collected online through a questionnaire designed in Chinese language using a survey firm. The findings of this study indicated that there is a significant impact of interactivity and humanness on the trust toward chatbots. Moreover, the findings of this study indicated that there is a significant mediating effect of trust toward chatbots in the relationships of interactivity and perceived humanness to adopt chatbots for e-commerce. In addition, this study found a significant moderating influence on the perceived enjoyment of using chatbots in e-commerce settings. This study provides a unique perspective of expectation-confirmation theory for adopting emerging technologies for online shopping and also provides insights for designers and business firms to develop businesses to facilitate the AI chatbot feature for e-commerce.