Achieving Trust, Satisfaction and Commitment From AI Interactions : A Qualitative Study On The Effect of AI On Relationship Quality With Companies

Introduction - Artificial intelligence, defined as “the ability of a system to correctly interpret external data, learn from such data, and use these learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2020, p.17), is an important tool for facilitating interactions between companies and customers. Most companies are planning to utilize AI in some shape or form in the future, yet understanding the impact of AI technologies on marketing strategies involving relationship quality is in need of further research. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how AI affects relationship quality. Methodology - This inductive research utilized nine semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used as the data analysis method. The sample consisted of consumers living in Sweden that have interacted with cognitive engagement applications, where a few recalled experiences with voice assistants and social bots, while a clear majority discussed experiences with customer service chatbots. Findings - The findings of this research relate to AI’s effect on relationship quality as a whole. The three main themes that affect relationship quality were found to be AI characteristics, AI effects and AI encounters. Three propositions for future research are provided. P1: Trust from interactions with cognitive engaging AI is affected by AI system characteristics, AI engagement approach, AI information quality, AI realm, privacy concerns, bias concerns, hedonic usage and perceived human characteristics. P2: Satisfaction from interactions with cognitive engaging AI is affected by, AI system characteristics, AI engagement approach, hedonic usage and perceived human characteristics. P3: Commitment from interactions with cognitive engaging AI is affected by AI system characteristics, AI engagement approach, privacy concerns, AI interaction, hedonic usage and perceived human characteristics. Originality - This research has explored artificial intelligence's effect upon relationship quality as a whole, which has been largely ignored in literature as the only article found, that of Yao, Saad and Chong (2021), focused on the technology rather than its use in marketing. Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Relationship Quality, Trust, Satisfaction, Commitment, Relationship Marketing, AI Interaction