Effort vs. Efficiency: How Ideal‐Self Pursuit Shapes Consumer Preference for Substitutional AI ‐Powered Products

ABSTRACT As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly takes over human tasks, a critical question arises regarding the trade‐off between effort and efficiency in consumer decision‐making: despite AI's remarkable sophistication and its ability to enhance efficiency, why do many consumers still prefer to perform certain tasks themselves rather than delegate them to AI? Prior research has primarily examined this phenomenon from the perspectives of perceived competence and trust, while relatively little attention has been paid to the role of self‐identity, particularly ideal‐self pursuit. Integrating identity‐based motivation theory and self‐discrepancy theory, this study examines how ideal‐self pursuit shapes consumer responses to substitutional AI‐powered products in domains where personal effort and capability development are central to attaining the ideal self. Across a field study and four experiments, we find that consumers with stronger ideal‐self pursuit exhibit lower preference and reduced willingness to pay for substitutional AI‐powered products. Perceived self‐threat moderates this effect, and the moderated relationship is mediated by consumers' self‐improvement motivation. Specifically, under high (vs. low) perceived self‐threat, ideal‐self pursuers show an even lower preference for AI‐powered products that replace effort aimed at self‐improvement. Importantly, this effect should not be interpreted as a wholesale rejection of AI. When AI‐powered products are positioned as tools that support rather than substitute consumers' self‐improvement efforts, ideal‐self pursuit can instead increase consumer preference. These findings offer a novel perspective on consumer responses to AI‐powered products and provide implications for positioning AI technologies in ways that better align with consumers' identity‐related motivations.