No one is watching: AI service agents and the rise of unethical consumer behavior

The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) agents in frontline service roles is reshaping frontline interactions, with important implications for consumer ethical behavior. This research examines whether AI-mediated service interactions increase unethical consumer behavior and identifies the psychological mechanism underlying this effect. Across a pilot study and three experiments, we show that consumers who interact with AI agents report higher unethical behavioral intentions than those who interact with human employees. This effect is explained by reduced perceived social judgment, defined as the extent to which consumers perceive the interacting agent as capable of morally evaluating their behavior, rather than by entitlement, anticipatory guilt, or moral disengagement. The effect is strongest when both internal (moral identity) and external (detectability) accountability are low. Importantly, cognitive priming of evaluative concern does not restore this perception in AI-mediated interactions, suggesting that reduced social judgment is anchored in the agent's perceived evaluative capacity rather than in momentary cognitive salience. These findings show that AI alters the evaluative dynamics of retail and service encounters, increasing the risk of unethical consumer behavior, and highlight the need for firms to embed accountability mechanisms when deploying AI in customer-facing roles.