The Impact of AI Customer Service Incivility on Consumer Service Experience in Retail E-Commerce Platforms: An E-Politeness Perspective

While AI customer service has effectively contributed to cost reduction and operational efficiency on retail e-commerce platforms, its interactional shortcomings—particularly in the form of “incivility”—have significantly undermined consumer service experiences. Adopting a service politeness perspective, this study systematically investigates how uncivil behaviors exhibited by AI agents trigger negative consumer responses. Using the Critical Incident Technique, 325 valid negative incidents were collected from major Chinese social media platforms and subjected to qualitative analysis. Findings reveal six core dimensions of uncivil AI behavior: problem-solving efficacy, response accuracy, human handover, empathetic engagement, system stability, and reliability of commitment. Among these, issues related to human handover (29.23%) and response accuracy (26.15%) were the most prevalent. This study not only fills a theoretical gap in the politeness dimension of AI service experience but also provides actionable insights and empirical support for optimizing human–machine interaction design in digital commerce. Based on the findings, targeted recommendations are proposed for four key stakeholders—platform governance, technical functionality, merchants, and consumers—to collectively enhance the quality and civility of AI-driven customer service.