The Impact of Human-AI Relationship Perception on Voice Shopping Intentions

Abstract

In the emerging field of voice shopping with quasi-sales agents like Amazon's Alexa, we investigated the influence of perceived human-AI relationships (i.e., authority ranking, market pricing, peer bonding) on (voice-)shopping intentions. In our cross-sectional survey among experienced voice shoppers, we tested hypotheses specifically differentiating voice shopping for low- and high-involvement products. The results emphasized the importance of socio-emotional elements (i.e., peer bonding) for voice shopping for high-involvement products. While calculative decision-making (i.e., market pricing) was less relevant, the master-servant relationship perception (i.e., authority ranking) was important in low-involvement shopping. An exploratory analysis of users’ desired benefits of voice shopping reinforces our claims. The outcomes are relevant for conversation designers, business developers, and policymakers.

Keywords

• voice shopping
• human-ai relationship
• conversational ai
• high- and low-involvement
• perceived benefits