Consumer Adoption of Artificial Intelligence: A Review of Theories and Antecedents

Recently, people are increasingly adopting technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) in their everyday lives. Several researchers have investigated this phenomenon using several theoretical perspectives to explain the motivations behind such behaviour. Our paper reviews this body of knowledge to highlight the technologies, theories, and antecedents of AI adoption investigated this far in academic research. By analysing publications found in Harzing's Journal Quality List, this paper identifies 52 publications on user adoption of AI, 198 antecedents, and 36 theoretical perspectives used to explain user adoption of AI. The most widely used theoretical perspectives in this area of research are the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Meanwhile, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust are the most studied antecedents. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for future research on AI adoption by consumers

Attachment Theory as a Framework to Understand Relationships with Social Chatbots: A Case Study of Replika

With increasing adoption of AI social chatbots, especially during the pandemic-related lockdowns, when people lack social companionship, there emerges a need for in-depth understanding and theorizing of relationship formation with digital conversational agents. Following the grounded theory approach, we analyzed in-depth interview transcripts obtained from 14 existing users of AI companion chatbot Replika. The emerging themes were interpreted through the lens of the attachment theory. Our results show that under conditions of distress and lack of human companionship, individuals can develop an attachment to social chatbots if they perceive the chatbots’ responses to offer emotional support, encouragement, and psychological security. These findings suggest that social chatbots can be used for mental health and therapeutic purposes but have the potential to cause addiction and harm real-life intimate relationships

Artificial Intelligence Service Agents: Role of Parasocial Relationship

Increased use of artificial intelligence service agents (AISA) has been associated with improvements in AISA service performance. Whilst there is consensus that unique forms of attachment develop between users and AISA that manifest as parasocial relationships (PSRs), the literature is less clear about the AISA service attributes and how they influence PSR and the users’ subjective well-being. Based on a dataset collected from 408 virtual assistant users from the US, this research develops and tests a model that can explain how AISA-enabled service influences subjective well-being through the mediating effect of PSR. Findings also indicate significant gender and AISA experience differences in the PSR effect on subjective well-being. This study advances current understanding of AISA in service encounters by investigating the mediating role of PSR in AISA’s effect on users’ subjective well-being. We also discuss managerial implications for practitioners who are increasingly using AISA for delivering customer service

A Review of Personality in Human Robot Interactions

Personality has been identified as a vital factor in understanding the quality of human robot interactions. Despite this the research in this area remains fragmented and lacks a coherent framework. This makes it difficult to understand what we know and identify what we do not. As a result our knowledge of personality in human robot interactions has not kept pace with the deployment of robots in organizations or in our broader society. To address this shortcoming, this paper reviews 83 articles and 84 separate studies to assess the current state of human robot personality research. This review: (1) highlights major thematic research areas, (2) identifies gaps in the literature, (3) derives and presents major conclusions from the literature and (4) offers guidance for future research.Comment: 70 pages, 2 figure

Drivers of smart speakers' advertising acceptance

The growing impact of technology on marketing communications is inevitable. That is why brands need to achieve the vision of these new technologies, which are becoming the new channels of communication and purchasing, to get closer to the consumer. Artificial Intelligence and, consequently, smart speakers are becoming one of the major trends in marketing, bringing benefits not only for brands but also for consumers. Thus, this study explores what factors may impact the acceptance of receiving advertising through these devices. This study's objective focuses on 329 Portuguese consumers' responses and uses a partial least square structural equation modelling to conduct an empirical study. The results indicate that the channel’s acceptance has a significant impact on consumers' acceptance of advertising and the hedonic motivations. However, it demonstrates that the perceived value and trust of advertising do not significantly impact its acceptance. The study suggests that smart speakers should benefit their users and have added functions that allow interaction with what is being advertised. Besides, the content that brands want to advertise should be relevant and contain information related to users' interests to generate positive feelings towards the ad, leading to a higher predisposition to accept advertising.O impacto crescente da tecnologia nas comunicações de marketing é inevitável, é por isso que as marcas precisam de alcançar a visão destas novas tecnologias, que se estão a tornar nos novos canais de comunicação e de compra, a fim de se aproximarem do consumidor. A Inteligência Artificial e consequentemente os assistentes de voz inteligentes estão a tornar-se uma das maiores tendências na área do marketing, trazendo benefícios não só para as marcas como também para os consumidores. Assim, este estudo explora quais os fatores que terão impacto na aceitação em receber publicidade através destes dispositivos. O objeto de investigação deste estudo centra-se nas respostas de 329 consumidores portugueses e utiliza uma modelação de equações estruturais baseada em "partial least squares" para realizar um estudo empírico. Os resultados indicam que a aceitação do canal tem um impacto significativo na aceitação da publicidade por parte dos consumidores, bem como as motivações hedónicas. Contudo, demonstra que o valor e a confiança percebida relativa à publicidade, não têm um impacto significativo na sua aceitação. O estudo sugere que os assistentes de voz inteligentes devem trazer benefícios aos seus utilizadores e devem-lhes ser adicionadas funções que permitam a interação com o que está a ser anunciado. Além disso, o conteúdo que as marcas pretendem anunciar deve ser relevante e conter informação relacionada com os interesses dos utilizadores, de forma a gerar sentimentos positivos nos consumidores e consequentemente levar a que a sua predisposição para aceitar publicidade seja mais elevada

Almost human, but not really

Technologies become increasingly present in people’s daily lives and oftentimes adopt the role of social counterparts. People have conversations with their smart voice assistants and social robots assist with the household or even look after their users’ mental and physical health. Thus, the human-technology relationship often resembles interpersonal relationships in several ways. While research has implied that the human-technology relationship can adopt a social character, it needs to be clarified in what ways and regarding which variables the human-technology relationship and interpersonal relationships are comparable. Moreover, the question arises to what extent interaction with technology can address users’ social needs similar to a human counterpart and therefore possibly even affect interpersonal interaction. In this, the role of technology anthropomorphism, that is, the attribution of humanlike qualities to non-human agents or objects needs to be specified. This thesis is dedicated to the relevance of the human-technology relationship for interpersonal relationships with a focus on social needs. In the frame of this overarching research aim, the studies included in this thesis focus on the dynamics of the human-technology relationship and their comparability to interpersonal relationships (RQ1), the potential of human-technology interaction to address users’ social needs or substitute their fulfillment through interpersonal interaction (RQ2) as well as the role of technology anthropomorphism regarding these relationships (RQ3). First, focusing on trust, which is integral for the relationship with a technology that is experienced as a counterpart, two consecutive experimental studies (study 1.1/1.2) were conducted. Based on a human-robot interaction, they explored trust development in the human-technology relationship as well as to what extent determinants known to affect interpersonal trust development are transferable. Moreover, they focused on the role of technology anthropomorphism in this relationship. In this, a positive effect of technology competence, that is, its ability to achieve intended goals (study 1.1), as well as technology warmth, that is, its adherence to the same intentions and interests as the trustor (study 1.2), on trust in the technology emerged. Thus, relevant determinants for trust development in the human-technology relationship were highlighted, also implying a transferability of essential dynamics of trust development from interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, perceived technology anthropomorphism appeared to affect the positive interrelation of perceived technology competence and trust in the technology (study 1.1) as well as the interrelation of perceived technology warmth and trust in the technology (study 1.2). These insights support a relevance of perceived technology anthropomorphism in trust dynamics within the human-technology relationship, but also in the transferability of corresponding dynamics from interpersonal relationships. Similarly, in another study (study 2) the transferability of dynamics was explored for the variable of social connectedness, also key for relationship development and potentially relevant for the effect of interaction with technology on users’ social needs. Therefore, a two-week human-technology interaction with a conversational chatbot was investigated. In this, possibly relevant characteristics of the technology, such as its perception as anthropomorphic or socially present, and the user, for example, the individual tendency to anthropomorphize or the individual need to belong, were focused. Moreover, a possible effect of social connectedness to the technology on the desire to socialize with other humans was explored. As findings showed that duration and intensity of participants' interaction with the technology throughout the two-week study-period positively predicted felt social connectedness to the technology, similarities to dynamics of interpersonal relationship development were highlighted. Furthermore, the relevance of technology anthropomorphism in the development of a human-technology relationship as well as its comparability to dynamics of interpersonal relationships was underlined. Namely, the more intense individuals interacted with the technology, the more anthropomorphic they perceived it, and therefore felt more socially connected to it. Similarly, the longer and more intense individuals interacted with the technology, the more socially present they perceived it, and in turn felt more socially connected to it. While contrary to expectations, no interrelation between the felt social connectedness to the technology and the desire to socialize with other humans emerged, this relationship was explored further within studies 3.1, 3.2 and 4. Two consecutive experimental studies (study 3.1/3.2) explored the potential of anthropomorphic technologies to fulfill social needs as well as how individually perceived anthropomorphism correlates to these needs. While in both studies social exclusion and technology anthropomorphism were manipulated, we applied a different manipulation of anthropomorphism for each study. Whereas in one study (study 3.1) participants answered anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) questions regarding their own smartphone, in the other study (study 3.2) they were confronted with smartphone designs with anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) design cues. In both studies, no effects of anthropomorphism and social exclusion on behavioral intention or willingness to socialize were found. Yet, study 3.1 showed a positive correlation between willingness to socialize and perceived technology anthropomorphism. Results of study 3.2 further supported this relationship and additionally showed that this relationship was particularly strong for individuals with a high tendency to anthropomorphize, when the technology came with anthropomorphic design cues regarding its appearance. Thus, findings imply a relationship between social needs and anthropomorphism and further hint at a relevance of individual and contextual strengthening factors. To complement these findings and foster a deeper understanding of the human-technology relationship as well as its potential to address users’ social needs, a qualitative interview study was conducted (study 4). Findings highlight a potential of anthropomorphic technologies to address users’ social needs in certain ways, but also underline essential differences between the quality of human-technology interaction and interpersonal interaction. Examples are the technology’s missing reactions in interaction with the user on a content, physical, and emotional level as well as the absence of satisfaction of users’ social needs through interaction with technology. Additionally, insights hint at a social desirability bias, as interaction with technology that resembles interpersonal interaction appears to often be subject to rather negative reactions by third parties. After an overview of the empirical studies included in this thesis and their brief summaries, their research contribution is discussed. This is followed by an elaboration of overall theoretical and practical implications of this thesis. Theoretical implications focus on how this work contributes to but also extends theoretical and empirical work in the frame of the “computers are social actors” paradigm and particularly highlights the role of technology anthropomorphism as a phenomenon in this regard. Beyond the exploration of a social character of the human-technology relationship, this thesis offers insights on the potential of the human-technology relationship to address users’ social needs to an extent that interpersonal relationships can be affected. Implications for practitioners involve insights on design examples to support the development of essential determinants of the human-technology relationship. They also offer a more abstract invitation to reflect on the design and application contexts of technologies to foster a responsible handling with technology in peoples’ daily lives. Finally, the thesis concludes with a discussion of general limitations and directions for future research.Technologien werden zunehmend präsent im Alltag der Menschen und nehmen häufig die Rolle eines sozialen Gegenübers ein. Menschen unterhalten sich mit ihren technischen Sprachassistenten und soziale Roboter unterstützen im Haushalt und kümmern sich sogar um das psychische und physische Wohlbefinden ihrer Nutzer und Nutzerinnen. Entsprechend ähnelt die Mensch-Technik Beziehung in verschiedenen Aspekten häufig zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen. Im Einklang damit spricht bisherige Forschung dafür, dass die Mensch-Technik Beziehung einen sozialen Charakter annehmen kann. Es gilt jedoch zu erforschen, auf welche Art und Weise und in Bezug auf welche Variablen die Mensch-Technik Beziehung und zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen vergleichbar sind. Darüber hinaus stellt sich die Frage, inwiefern durch Interaktion mit Technik soziale Bedürfnisse der Nutzer und Nutzerinnen auf eine ähnliche Art und Weise adressiert werden können wie durch die Interaktion mit einem anderen Menschen, und infolgedessen möglicherweise ein Effekt auf zwischenmenschliche Interaktion entstehen kann. Dabei gilt es zu spezifizieren, welche Rolle Anthropomorphismus, das heißt, die Zuschreibung menschenähnlicher Qualitäten in Bezug auf nicht-menschliche Agenten oder Objekte, spielt. Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich der Relevanz der Mensch-Technik Beziehung für zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen, mit einem Fokus auf soziale Bedürfnisse. Im Rahmen dieses übergreifenden Forschungsvorhabens erforschen die Studien dieser Arbeit die Dynamiken der Mensch-Technik Beziehung und deren Vergleichbarkeit mit zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen (Forschungsfrage 1), das Potential der Mensch-Technik Interaktion, soziale Bedürfnisse der Nutzer und Nutzerinnen zu adressieren oder die Befriedigung dieser durch zwischenmenschliche Interaktion zu substituieren (Forschungsfrage 2) sowie die Rolle des Anthropomorphismus von Technik in Bezug auf diese Zusammenhänge (Forschungsfrage 3). In zwei konsekutiven, experimentellen Studien (Studie 1.1/1.2) wurde Vertrauen in der Mensch-Technik Beziehung als essentielle Grundlage einer Beziehung zu einer Technik, die als Gegenüber wahrgenommen wird, fokussiert. Mittels einer Mensch-Roboter Interaktion wurde die Entwicklung von Vertrauen in der Mensch-Technik Beziehung untersucht. Dabei wurde erforscht, inwiefern Determinanten, welche die Entwicklung von zwischenmenschlichem Vertrauen beeinflussen können, auf die Mensch-Technik Beziehung übertragbar sind. Darüber hinaus wurde die Rolle des Anthropomorphismus von Technik untersucht. Es zeigte sich ein positiver Effekt der Kompetenz der Technik, das heißt der Fähigkeit, beabsichtigte Ziele zu erreichen (Studie 1.1), und der Wärme der Technik, das heißt des Verfolgens der gleichen Intentionen und Interessen wie jeweilige Nutzer und Nutzerinnen (Studie 1.2) auf das Vertrauen in die Technik. Entsprechend wurden relevante Determinanten der Vertrauensentwicklung in der Mensch-Technik Beziehung beleuchtet und eine Übertragbarkeit essentieller Dynamiken der Vertrauensentwicklung aus zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen aufgezeigt. Außerdem zeigte sich ein Effekt des wahrgenommenen Anthropomorphismus der Technik auf die positiven Zusammenhänge zwischen wahrgenommener Kompetenz und Vertrauen in die Technik (Studie 1.1) sowie wahrgenommener Wärme und Vertrauen in die Technik (Studie 1.2). Diese Einsichten unterstützen die Relevanz des wahrgenommenen Anthropomorphismus der Technik hinsichtlich der Vertrauensdynamiken in der Mensch-Technik Beziehung sowie der Übertragbarkeit entsprechender Dynamiken aus zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen. In einer weiteren Studie (Studie 2) wurde die Übertragbarkeit der Dynamiken von zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen auf die Mensch-Technik Beziehung in Bezug auf die Variable der sozialen Verbundenheit untersucht. Diese kann ebenso relevant für die Beziehungsentwicklung und einen möglichen Effekt von Interaktion mit Technik auf soziale Bedürfnisse der Nutzer und Nutzerinnen sein. Hierfür wurde eine zweiwöchige Mensch-Technik Interaktion mit einem dialogfähigen Chatbot exploriert. Dabei wurden potentiell relevante Charakteristika der Technik, beispielsweise, ihre Wahrnehmung als anthropomorph oder sozial präsent sowie der Nutzer und Nutzerinnen, beispielsweise, die individuelle Tendenz zu anthropomorphisieren sowie das individuelle Bedürfnis nach Zugehörigkeit, fokussiert und ein möglicher Effekt der sozialen Verbundenheit zur Technik auf den Wunsch mit anderen Menschen zu sozialisieren untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass Interaktionsdauer und Interaktionsintensität mit der Technik über die zweiwöchige Studiendauer hinweg die empfundene soziale Verbundenheit zu dieser positiv voraussagten. Entsprechend wurden Ähnlichkeiten der Dynamiken der Beziehungsentwicklung zu zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen hervorgehoben. Des Weiteren wurde die Relevanz von Anthropomorphismus der Technik für die Entwicklung einer Mensch-Technik Beziehung und die Vergleichbarkeit mit Dynamiken zwischenmenschlicher Beziehungen unterstrichen. Denn je intensiver Menschen mit der Technik interagierten, umso menschenähnlicher nahmen sie diese wahr und fühlten sich infolgedessen umso stärker sozial verbunden mit ihr. Ebenso, je länger und intensiver Menschen mit der Technik interagierten, umso sozial präsenter nahmen sie diese wahr und fühlten sich infolgedessen umso stärker sozial verbunden mit ihr. Während sich wider Erwarten kein Zusammenhang zwischen der sozialen Verbundenheit zur Technik und dem Wunsch, mit anderen Menschen zu sozialisieren, zeigte, wurde dieser Zusammenhang im Rahmen der Studien 3.1, 3.2 und 4 näher exploriert. Im Rahmen zweier konsekutiver, experimenteller Studien (Studie 3.1/3.2) wurde das Potential von anthropomorphen Technologien, soziale Bedürfnisse zu erfüllen untersucht sowie der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern individuell wahrgenommener Anthropomorphismus mit sozialen Bedürfnissen korreliert. In beiden Studien wurden soziale Exklusion und Anthropomorphismus der Technik manipuliert, Anthropomorphismus jedoch in den Studien jeweils unterschiedlich. In einer Studie (Studie 3.1) beantworteten Versuchspersonen anthropomorphe (vs. nicht anthropomorphe) Fragen über ihr eigenes Smartphone. In der anderen Studie (Studie 3.2) wurden sie mit Smartphone-Designs mit anthropomorphen (vs. nicht anthropomorphen) Merkmalen konfrontiert. In beiden Studien zeigten sich keine Effekte von Anthropomorphismus und sozialer Exklusion auf die verhaltensbezogene Intention oder die Bereitschaft mit anderen zu sozialisieren. Jedoch zeigte sich in Studie 3.1 übergreifend eine positive Korrelation zwischen der Bereitschaft mit anderen Menschen zu sozialisieren und dem wahrgenommenen Anthropomorphismus der Technik. Ergebnisse der Studie 3.2 unterstützten diesen Befund und implizierten zusätzlich, dass dieser Zusammenhang für Menschen, die eine hohe Tendenz zu anthropomorphisieren aufwiesen und gleichzeitig mit einer Technik mit anthropomorpher Gestaltung in Bezug auf deren Erscheinung konfrontiert waren, besonders ausgeprägt war. Insgesamt sprechen diese Einsichten für einen Zusammenhang zwischen sozialen Bedürfnissen und Anthropomorphismus und deuten auf eine Relevanz von individuellen und kontextuellen Faktoren hin, die verstärkend wirken können. Als Ergänzung der erläuterten Befunde sowie zur Unterstützung eines tiefgründigen Verständnisses der Mensch-Technik Beziehung und des Potentials dieser, soziale Bedürfnisse der Nutzer und Nutzerinnen anzusprechen, wurde eine qualitative Interviewstudie durchgeführt (Studie 4). Die gewonnenen Einsichten unterstützen das Potential anthropomorpher Technik, soziale Bedürfnisse der Nutzer und Nutzerinnen auf bestimmte Wege anzusprechen, aber zeigten auch essentielle Unterschiede in der Qualität der Mensch-Technik und zwischenmenschlichen Interaktion. Zu Beispielen gehören fehlende Reaktionen der Technik auf Nutzer und Nutzerinnen auf einer inhaltlichen, emotionalen und physischen Ebene sowie das Ausbleiben der Befriedigung sozialer Bedürfnisse durch die Interaktion mit Technik. Zusätzlich weisen die Studieneinsichten auf einen Effekt sozialer Erwünschtheit diesbezüglich hin, zumal die Interaktion mit Technik, die zwischenmenschlicher Interaktion ähnelt, häufig mit eher negativen Reaktionen Dritter assoziiert wurde. Im Anschluss an einen Überblick und die kurze Zusammenfassung der empirischen Studien dieser Dissertation wird deren Beitrag in Hinblick auf bisherige Forschung diskutiert. Darauf folgt eine Erläuterung übergreifender theoretischer und praktischer Implikationen dieser Arbeit. Theoretische Implikationen fokussieren hauptsächlich wie die vorliegende Dissertation das Verständnis theoretischer und empirischer Arbeiten im Rahmen des „computers are social actors“ Paradigmas vertieft und zusätzlich erweitert. Darüber hinaus wird die diesbezügliche Rolle von Anthropomorphismus der Technik als Phänomen beleuchtet. Über die Exploration des sozialen Charakters der Mensch-Technik Beziehung hinaus, liefert die vorliegende Arbeit Einsichten zum Potential der Mensch-Technik Beziehung soziale Bedürfnisse der Nutzer und Nutzerinnen insofern zu adressieren, dass Konsequenzen für zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen entstehen können. Implikationen für die Praxis beziehen sich auf Einsichten in Hinblick auf Design-Beispiele, welche die Entwicklung von Faktoren, die zentral für die Mensch-Technik Beziehung sein können, unterstützen können. Darüber hinaus laden die Implikationen ein, über das Design und die Anwendungskontexte von Technologien zu reflektieren, um einen verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit Technologien im Alltag der Menschen zu fördern. Abschließend werden allgemeine Limitationen der vorliegenden Arbeit diskutiert und mögliche Richtungen für zukünftige Forschung aufgezeigt

Evaluation of Laban Effort Features based on the Social Attributes and Personality of Domestic Service Robots

Today, it is not uncommon to see robots adopted in various domains and environments. From manufacturing facilities to households, robots take over several roles and tasks. For instance, the adoption of robotic vacuum cleaners has drastically increased in the recent decades. During their interaction with these embodied autonomous agents, humans tend to ascribe certain personality traits to them, even when the robot has a mechanoid appearance and very low degree-of-freedom. As the social capabilities and the persuasiveness of robots increase, design of robots with certain personality traits will become a significant design problem. The current advancements in AI and robotics will led to development of more realistic and persuasive robots in the foreseeable future. For this, it is crucial to understand people’s judgment of the robots’ social attributes since the findings can shape the future of personality and behavior design for social robots. Therefore, using only a simple and mono-functional robotic vacuum cleaner, this study aims to investigate the impact of expressive motions on how people perceive the social attributes and personality of the robot. To investigate this, the framework of Laban Effort Features was modified to fit the needs and constraints of a robotic vacuum cleaner. Expressive motions were designed for a simple cleaning task performed by iRobot’s Create2. The four movement features that have been controlled for robot include path planning behavior, radius of curvature at rotational turns, velocity, and vacuum power. Next, participants were asked to rate the personality and social attributes of the robot under several treatment conditions using a video-based online survey. Participants were recruited through the crowd-sourcing platform, Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results indicated that people’s ratings of personality and social attributes of the robot were influenced by the robot’s movement features. For social attributes, there were two main findings. First, velocity influenced robot’s ratings of warmth and competence. Second, path planning behavior influenced robot’s ratings of competence and discomfort. In terms of robot personality, the results indicated three main findings. First, random path planning behavior was associated with higher Neuroticism ratings. Second, high velocity yielded higher Agreeableness ratings. Third, vacuum power with higher duty cycle yielded higher Agreeableness and Conscientiousness ratings. In conclusion, this study showed the framework of Laban Effort Features can be applied to fit the cleaning task of a domestic service robot, and that the framework’s application makes a difference in how humans perceive the personality and social attributes of the robot. Overall, the findings should be considered in human-robot interaction when incorporating expressive motions and affective behavior into domestic service robots

Oye Siri, Okey Google, Hey Alexa...: Determinantes de la intención de uso de los asistentes virtuales por voz e influencia de la privacidad percibida

Trabajo Fin de Máster en Dirección de MarketingVivimos en un mundo cada vez más tecnológico y se hace necesario una mayor comprensión de las tecnologías que nos brinda el mercado actual. El uso de los asistentes virtuales por voz vino a nuestras vidas hace algunos años y lo hizo para hacerse parte fundamental en nuestra vida poco a poco. Actualmente, estamos ante un incremento en la utilización de este tipo de tecnología y, en particular, el altavoz inteligente de Amazon “Echo Dot” fue uno de los principales regalos durante las navidades pasadas. La tasa de penetración de los altavoces inteligentes es cada vez mayor y, también lo es para el uso de los Asistentes Virtuales por Voz. Como consumidores hemos pasado del teclado a la pantalla táctil de un móvil y, ahora podemos interactuar con nuestra voz. Tras la revisión de la literatura se realiza un análisis de las características de estos asistentes cómo; facilidad de uso, compatibilidad, calidad de la información, calidad de la interacción, personalización de la información y tecnicismo (technicality). Posteriormente, trataremos de estudiar los distintos beneficios percibidos que podríamos tener; utilitario, hedónico y simbólico y, así entender cuál es la intención de uso de los asistentes virtuales por voz, teniendo en cuenta, por último, la privacidad percibida tan importante en la era digital en la que convivimo

Unlocking the potential of Artificial Intelligence: barriers and barriers’ inhibitors regarding the adoption of artificial intelligence-enabled products by consumers

Despite the optimistic forecasts of some years ago about the diffusion of smart objects (SOs), consumers' adoption of such devices is still in its infancy. Building on marketing literature about consumer resistance to the adoption of innovation, consumer privacy concerns, and consumer-smart objects relationships, the goal of this work is threefold: 1) identifying barriers to consumers' adoption that are specific to smart devices, and identifying the most important barrier discriminating between adopters and non-adopters; 2) identifying inhibitors specific to the main barriers to the adoption (i.e., data collection concerns); 3) identifying a new barrier to the adoption stemming from the possible relationship that can occur between consumer and smart object. Each objective is the subject of one paper. Indeed, the dissertation is composed of three different papers. Concerning the results, the first paper shed light on the main barrier to the adoption of SOs (i.e., data collection concerns); the second paper uncovers whether, why, and when the explanation about how an algorithm gathers and processes consumers' personal data and the level of control over the management of personal data that the firm provides to the consumer can reduce consumers' data collection concerns. Finally, the third paper uncovers a new, relational barrier to the adoption of SOs highlighting four different fears and respective negative social roles anticipated by consumers

Perceiving Sociable Technology: Exploring the Role of Anthropomorphism and Agency Perception on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

With the arrival of personal assistants and other AI-enabled autonomous technologies, social interactions with smart devices have become a part of our daily lives. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these social interactions emerge, and why users appear to be influenced by them. For this reason, I explore questions on what the antecedents and consequences of this phenomenon, known as anthropomorphism, are as described in the extant literature from fields ranging from information systems to social neuroscience. I critically analyze those empirical studies directly measuring anthropomorphism and those referring to it without a corresponding measurement. Through a grounded theory approach, I identify common themes and use them to develop models for the antecedents and consequences of anthropomorphism. The results suggest anthropomorphism possesses both conscious and non-conscious components with varying implications. While conscious attributions are shown to vary based on individual differences, non-conscious attributions emerge whenever a technology exhibits apparent reasoning such as through non-verbal behavior like peer-to-peer mirroring or verbal paralinguistic and backchanneling cues. Anthropomorphism has been shown to affect users’ self-perceptions, perceptions of the technology, how users interact with the technology, and the users’ performance. Examples include changes in a users’ trust on the technology, conformity effects, bonding, and displays of empathy. I argue these effects emerge from changes in users’ perceived agency, and their self- and social- identity similarly to interactions between humans. Afterwards, I critically examine current theories on anthropomorphism and present propositions about its nature based on the results of the empirical literature. Subsequently, I introduce a two-factor model of anthropomorphism that proposes how an individual anthropomorphizes a technology is dependent on how the technology was initially perceived (top-down and rational or bottom-up and automatic), and whether it exhibits a capacity for agency or experience. I propose that where a technology lays along this spectrum determines how individuals relates to it, creating shared agency effects, or changing the users’ social identity. For this reason, anthropomorphism is a powerful tool that can be leveraged to support future interactions with smart technologies