The New Shop Assistants? Unveiling ConsumerAttitudes towards AI-powered Chatbots in E-commerce : An exploratory study

Sammanfattning

Background: In today's society, the rapid growth of online shopping among consumers has resulted in the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence powered chatbots by businesses. Despite this, previous research has not focused on where customers place their attitudes towards AI-powered chatbots in e-commerce. The ABC model of attitudes, which includes affective, behavioral, and cognitive components was used to examine how attitudes are formed towards AI-powered chatbots. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore consumers' attitudes towards AI-powered chatbots utilized in e-commerce. Methodology: Because the study has an exploratory and inductive approach, a qualitative research strategy was selected. It was determined to use a generic purposive sampling in which ten participants were chosen as part of Generation Z. A semi-structured interview was conducted in which questions were posed regarding the ABC model and the characteristics of AI-powered chatbots. To analyze how attitudes are formed and what they are, grounded theory was used to code the interviews to established consumer attitudes categories. Findings: The findings demonstrate that consumers' attitudes towards AI-powered chatbots used in e-commerce varied from being positive, negative, or mixed. This is due to the factors that contributed to the formation of attitudes.