Beyond Stars And Stories: AI's Role In Shaping Consumer Behaviour Through Customer Reviews

Sammanfattning

Customer reviews are typically recognised as the digital version of word of mouth, and are widely regarded as the most genuine and cost-effective marketing method. Therefore, it is very common for e-commerce brands to include user-generated reviews on product pages. Several studies have already established that valence in reviews can increase purchase intention, product attitude and decision confidence. Review formats and ways of displaying reviews on product pages are a science in themselves, as small details can affect consumer behaviour. With the large mass of reviews some e-commerce brands have garnered, it becomes tricky for consumers to navigate through these many different opinions, which has been shown to have a negative effect on cognitive load. A new solution, AI-generated review summaries, has become more prevalent in the e-commerce space, with Amazon being at the forefront. We delve deeper into AI-generated review summaries through social proof, cognitive load theory and persuasion knowledge. We employ a two-step experimental study. The pre-study established two suitable products for the main experimental study, which were gender neutral, equal in price and had different levels of complexity. In the main experiment, 408 participants were exposed to one of four stimuli with different product complexity and the presence or absence of an AI-generated review summary. Results show that in the scope of social proof, AI-generated reviews have no effect on perceived authenticity and credibility. Neither does it have an effect on persuasion resistance, at least when user-generated reviews are also present. However, AI-generated review summaries reduce cognitive load, which improves decision confidence. Furthermore, AI-generated review summaries also contributed to higher purchase intent and a more positive product attitude. The moderating variable, product complexity, seems to have little to no effect on the variables within the scope of this study.