Determinants Affecting Consumer Trust in Communication With AI Chatbots

Abstract

This paper summarized the factors that influence consumers' trust in AI chatbots and divided it into chatbot-related factors (expertise, anthropomorphism, responsiveness, and ease of use), company-related factors (perceived risk, brand trust, human support), and consumer-related factors (privacy concerns). This research attempts to explore the mechanism of human-AI chatbots trust formation and answer the question of how to promote consumers' trust in AI chatbots. The results found that the chatbot-related factors (expertise, responsiveness, and anthropomorphism) positively affect consumers' trust in chatbots. The company-related factor (brand trust) positively affects consumers' trust in chatbots, and perceived risk negatively affect consumers' trust in chatbots. Privacy concerns have a moderating effect on company-related factors. This study helps deepen the understanding of human-AI chatbots communication trust, constructs a basic model of human-AI chatbots trust, and provides insights for e-commerce enterprises to improve chatbots and enhance consumer trust.