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When do consumers prefer AI-enabled customer service? The interaction effect of brand personality and service provision type on brand attitudes and purchase intentions

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Abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology has advanced, it has become crucial to promoting service innovation and evolution. However, whether and when consumers prefer AI-enabled services remains unclear. This study addresses this question by investigating the matching effect of brand personality (sincerity vs. competence) and customer service provision type (human-staffed vs. AI-enabled) on brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Three scenario-based online experiments revealed that consumers prefer AI-enabled customer service when the brand personality is competence and human-staffed service when the brand personality is sincerity. These preferences lead to more positive brand attitudes and higher purchase intentions. We also found that perceived brand authenticity mediates the above relationships. Meanwhile, our investigation of the moderating role of consumer involvement found that the brand personality-service provision alignment’s positive effects emerge for high-involvement consumers but not for low-involvement consumers. These findings contribute to brand personality and authenticity theory and have practical implications for companies’ marketing strategies—elucidating, for example, how the effects of utilizing AI-enabled customer service may influence brand attitudes and purchase intentions regarding brands with different “personalities.”

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Major Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China (18ZDA062). The authors want to extend their gratitude and heartfelt thanks toward the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their indispensable and invaluable suggestions and comments. Their inputs brought about significant improvement to the overall quality of this research article.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Stimuli used in Experiment 1

Competence brand personality condition.

figure a

Sincerity brand personality condition.

figure b

Appendix 2: Stimuli Used in Experiment 2

Competence brand personality condition.

figure c

Sincerity brand personality condition.

figure d

Appendix 3: Stimuli Used in Experiment 3

Competence brand personality condition.

figure e

Sincerity brand personality condition.

figure f

Appendix 4: Customer service provision stimuli (used in Experiments 1, 2, and 3)

AI-enabled customer service provision condition.

figure g

Human-staffed customer service provision condition.

figure h

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Yang, C., Hu, J. When do consumers prefer AI-enabled customer service? The interaction effect of brand personality and service provision type on brand attitudes and purchase intentions. J Brand Manag 29, 167–189 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-021-00261-7

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