Artificial intelligence versus human service agents: How their presence shapes consumer information privacy concerns
通过实验研究发现，相比人类服务代理，人工智能代理的存在会降低消费者的信息隐私担忧，进而提高分享个人信息和与零售商互动的意愿，这一效应受代理感知权力、信任度和出现时机的影响。
Service agents act on behalf of retailers to interact with consumers. Agents’ service delivery requires information from consumers, which may raise consumers’ concerns about their information privacy. While previous research has linked service agents’ presence to perceptions of being watched, little is known about how artificial intelligence (AI) (vs. human) agents’ passive or mere presence affects consumer information privacy concerns—a gap this research aims to address. In a series of experimental studies and drawing on reactance theory, we find that consumers express lesser privacy concerns in the presence of AI (vs. human) service agents, which in turn leads to a greater willingness to share personal information and increased intention to engage with the retailer. To explain this effect, we identify consumers’ perceptions of service agents’ power: consumers perceive AI (vs. human) agents as having less power over them and therefore have lesser privacy concerns. The findings are consistent across various retailer types (e.g., florists, home décor, food, pharmacy) and diverse participant groups. In addition, we identify two boundary conditions of this effect: the trustworthiness of service agents and the timing of their presence (before or after a purchase). Understanding these elements can help retailers effectively manage privacy concerns and strategically determine the presence of different types of service agents.