Work with or work alone? How AI involvement in healthcare consultations shapes consumer responses to service failure
Lifeng Chen, Bo Huang, Siti Nor Bayaah Ahmad · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · 2026
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into healthcare services, an important question emerges: should AI be deployed to work with humans physicians' or autonomously to provide healthcare services? This research examines how varying levels of AI involvement influence consumer reactions following healthcare service failures. Across two experiments, results show that when AI assists physicians, consumers report greater intention to reuse the service compared to a human-only medical consultation. In contrast, when AI works autonomously without the physician's oversight, reuse intention decreases. Mediation analyses reveal that trust, rather than responsibility attribution, drives these effects. Furthermore, the benefits of AI assistance emerge only among consumers low in AI-related anxiety. The findings advance research on AI in service failure contexts, particularly in healthcare, and offer actionable managerial insights on how AI should be integrated into medical service delivery to sustain consumer trust and continuous use.