Consumer Trust in Artificial Intelligence Services
Polymeros Chrysochou, Darius‐Aurel Frank, Dan Ariely, Panagiotis Mitkidis · 2019
Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence improve almost every aspect of consumer services. Yet, despite the enormous potential, artificial intelligence services face psychological barriers, such as the concern that artificial intelligence is less able to account for people’s unique characteristics and personal circumstances or simply threatens to take capabilities from humans in the value chain. This research investigates how consumer trust and willingness to depend on artificial intelligence services change as a function of the stakes of decision, type of recommendation and service agent for three typical service domains (health, legal, and retail). The results show a robust negative effect of artificial intelligence relative to human service agents in consumers trust and willingness to depend on the recommendations. This effect is linked to the stakes of the decision and is highest in the health domain respectively. These results contribute to the human psychology of artificial intelligence by extending its scope to the combination of human and artificial intelligence agents. Practical implications for the trustworthy design of artificial intelligence services are discussed.