I, Robot, You, Consumer: Measuring Artificial Intelligence Types and their Effect on Consumers Emotions in Service

Abstract

This research draws upon the increasing usage of AI in service. It aims at understanding the extent to which AI systems have multiple intelligence types like humans and if these types arouse different emotions in consumers. To this end, the research uses a two-study approach: Study 1 builds and evaluates a scale for measuring different AI intelligence types. Study 2 evaluates consumers’ emotional responses to the different AI intelligences. The findings provide a measurement scale for evaluating different types of artificial intelligence against human ones, thus showing that artificial intelligences are configurable, describable, and measurable (Study 1), and influence positive and negative consumers’ emotions (Study 2). The findings also demonstrate that consumers display different emotions, in terms of happiness, excitement, enthusiasm, pride, inspiration, sadness, fear, anger, shame, and anxiety, and also emotional attachment, satisfaction, and usage intention when interacting with the different types of AI intelligences. Our scale builds upon human intelligence against AI intelligence characteristics while providing a guidance for future development of AI-based systems more similar to human intelligences. Graphical Abstract