Deceptive by Design: AI-enhanced Dark Patterns in E-Commerce UX

Dark patterns are deceptive designs that influence users' decision making, by manipulating them into making decisions, which they otherwise wouldn’t make. Existing studies have explored dark patterns, including investigations into users’ emotional and cognitive responses when facing them. Our study, however, focuses on how artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced dark patterns, in e-commerce context, affect the users’ trust and autonomy. That is, users’ ability to make independent decisions without being controlled. With the growing use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, with the capability to quickly generate designs, it becomes crucial to investigate the technical capabilities and the ethical consequences. Through the study and comparison of users’ reactions to either the human-created or AI-enhanced dark patterns, we aim to explore how design influences user autonomy and manipulation of user behavior. Through a mixed research approach, we combined an experimental A/B test with quantitative eye tracking data and qualitative user feedback through an open-ended questionnaire. The purpose is to get a better insight of how the participants perceived the websites and if there was a difference regarding behavior and experience between the two groups. Our results showed that ultimately, AI-enhanced dark patterns are more efficient and also more insidious, challenging the fundamental principles of user autonomy, trust, and ethical design.