From what (motives) to what (outcomes) of relationships with artificially intelligent voice assistants

Abstract

This study holistically examined the interaction between humans and voice assistants (VAs), addressing a wide range of factors that elucidate the motives for their use and the potential relational, behavioral, and functional outcomes. This study conceptualizes parasocial relationship (PSR) as a relational outcome of motives for VA usage. The outcomes of PSR, including continuous usage intention, conversational commerce intention, and word of mouth, were analyzed. Furthermore, this study investigated the moderating effects of the VA voice type and users’ social anxiety. A mixed-method approach was employed across four studies. Study 1 explored VA usage motives through in-depth interviews. In Studies 2 and 3, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the conceptual model and the moderating role of social anxiety. Study 4 used an experimental approach to examine the moderating influence of VA voice type (synthetic vs. human). Study 1 identified six motives for using VAs: entertainment, information seeking, life efficiency, social interaction, personal identity, and virtual interaction for escaping from reality (VIER). Study 2 revealed that social interaction, VIER, and life efficiency motives promote PSR with VAs, leading to conversational commerce intention, continuance usage intention, and positive word-of-mouth. Study 3 demonstrated that social anxiety amplifies the impact of the social interaction motive on PSR with VAs. Study 4 found that individuals with social interaction and VIER motives are more likely to develop parasocial connections with VAs featuring human voices rather than synthetic ones. This study offers industry practitioners and marketers significant insights to enhance users’ PSR by addressing their motives to achieve desired behavioral outcomes.