Does Bot Gender Matter? Theory and Evidence From a High-Tension Service Context
研究在高紧张度服务情境（如债务催收）中，AI语音机器人的性别如何影响服务结果，发现女性机器人将还款意愿提高28.3%，且效果在紧张度更高时更显著。
Despite the increasing use of AI-powered voicebots, our understanding of how the choice of bot gender may impact service outcomes in high-tension service contexts, such as debt collection, remains limited. To address this gap, we drew on the tensions-based view of customer relationships and gender stereotype theory to hypothesize how and when voicebot gender matters in high-tension service contexts. We tested our hypotheses using a proprietary dataset of debt collection calls made by AI voicebots. We found that female voicebots increase the odds of a positive repayment intention by 28.3%. This gender effect is more pronounced when service encounters begin with higher tension, such as during weekdays or with initially uncooperative customers. We further show that the gender effect can be explained by the advantages of female voicebots in reducing behavioral and emotional tension during service interactions.