Trust Me, I am a Robot: AI-Powered Personalisation Consumer Trust, and Purchase Intention in Anthropomorphic Retail Service

Abstract: Retailing enters a new era where the AI personaliser goes beyond digital technology to be an anthropomorphic robot that can identify the customer, recall their history of purchases, and adapt itself based on the type of interaction. Using CASA theory, the personalization versus privacy paradox, and uncanny valley theory, the chapter formulates a conceptual framework where anthropomorphic design intensity acts as a moderator to intensify the role of trust building through AI personalization and privacy concerns on purchase intentions. The extensions are based on an empirically tested model (N = 214) where bootstrapped mediation revealed that trust has a positive mediating role in the relationship between personalization and purchase intentions, whereas privacy concern had a negative indirect effect on it. Strategic implications are made for the use of anthropomorphic service robots as brand ambassadors with a considerable potential to influence consumer trust.

Author(s): Abneer E. Samuel, Philip Nukpe, Shaffan Zahid and Chitra Sankaran

DOI: DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3373-6640-1.ch003

Page(s): 77-105

Depositing User: Selina Gondwe

Publication title: Transforming Service Experience Through Anthropomorphic Robots

Publisher: IGI Global

Subject(s): Artificial Intelligence