Interactivity, entertainment and shopping in the age of AI-powered chatbots: moderated mediation effects of humanness and education

Purpose This study aims to theorize the moderated mediation effects of perceived humanness and consumer education, while examining how chatbots’ social interactivity influences consumer intentions to use them for shopping via entertainment value. Design/methodology/approach Using data from 232 South Korean consumers, we employ the PROCESS macro to test our hypotheses. Findings This study suggests that chatbots’ entertainment value positively mediates the relation between social interactivity and consumer intentions to use them for shopping. Furthermore, while consumer education regarding chatbots strengthens the positive indirect effect of social interactivity on intentions to use them for shopping through entertainment value, unexpectedly, the perceived humanness of chatbots weakens the same indirect path. Originality/value Drawing on the computers-as-social-actors paradigm, this study extends the linkage between social interactivity and consumer responses by theorizing and empirically testing for the possible trade-off effects of customer education and human-like attributes in shaping the hedonic value of human-chatbot interaction, which (de)motivates the adoption of chatbots for shopping.