Purpose

The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to identify the categories of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot service failures in frontline, and second, to examine the effect of the intensity of AI emotion exhibited on the effectiveness of the chatbots’ autonomous service recovery process.

Design/methodology/approach

We adopt a mixed-methods research approach, starting with a qualitative research, the purpose of which is to identify specific categories of AI chatbot service failures. In the second stage, we conduct experiments to investigate the impact of AI chatbot service failures on consumers’ psychological perceptions, with a focus on the moderating influence of chatbot’s emotional expression. This sequential approach enabled us to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects for a comprehensive research perspective.

Findings

The results suggest that, from the analysis of interview data, AI chatbot service failures mainly include four categories: failure to understand, failure to personalize, lack of competence, and lack of assurance. The results also reveal that AI chatbot service failures positively affect dehumanization and increase customers’ perceptions of service failure severity. However, AI chatbots can autonomously remedy service failures through moderate AI emotion. An interesting golden zone of AI’s emotional expression in chatbot service failures was discovered, indicating that extremely weak or strong intensity of AI’s emotional expression can be counterproductive.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the burgeoning AI literature by identifying four types of AI service failure, developing dehumanization theory in the context of smart services, and demonstrating the nonlinear effects of AI emotion. The findings also offer valuable insights for organizations that rely on AI chatbots in terms of designing chatbots that effectively address and remediate service failures.

中文翻译：

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一线聊天机器人服务失败中人工智能情感表达的黄金地带

 目的

本研究的目的有两个：首先，确定一线人工智能 (AI) 聊天机器人服务失败的类别；其次，检查人工智能情绪强度对聊天机器人自主服务恢复有效性的影响过程。

设计/方法论/途径

我们采用混合方法的研究方法，从定性研究开始，其目的是确定人工智能聊天机器人服务故障的特定类别。第二阶段，我们通过实验研究人工智能聊天机器人服务失败对消费者心理感知的影响，重点研究聊天机器人情绪表达的调节影响。这种顺序方法使我们能够将定性和定量方面结合起来，以获得全面的研究视角。

 发现

结果表明，从访谈数据分析，AI聊天机器人服务失败主要包括四类：无法理解、无法个性化、缺乏能力、缺乏保证。结果还表明，人工智能聊天机器人服务失败会对非人性化产生积极影响，并增加客户对服务失败严重程度的看法。然而，人工智能聊天机器人可以通过适度的人工智能情绪来自主修复服务故障。我们发现了聊天机器人服务失败时人工智能情绪表达的一个有趣的黄金区域，这表明人工智能情绪表达的极弱或极强的强度可能会适得其反。

 原创性/价值

这项研究通过识别四种类型的人工智能服务失败、在智能服务背景下发展非人性化理论以及论证人工智能情感的非线性效应，为新兴的人工智能文献做出了贡献。研究结果还为依赖人工智能聊天机器人的组织设计有效解决和修复服务故障的聊天机器人提供了宝贵的见解。