How communications by AI-enabled voice assistants impact the customer journey

Abstract

PurposeArtificial intelligence–enabled voice assistants (VAs), such as Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's Siri, are available in smartphones, smart speakers, and other digital devices and channels. Use of these VAs is growing rapidly and are expected to significantly impact purchase intentions. This article focuses on how the communications enabled and provided by these VAs influence VA evaluations and usage intentions, contingent on the stage of the customer journey.Design/methodology/approachThis paper builds from work on VAs, work on artificial intelligence (AI) and work on communications, to offer a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of how VA evaluations and usage intentions may be impacted by the communications from VAs, contingent on the stage of the customer journey.FindingsThis paper proposes a model for VA enabled communications impact VA evaluations. It builds from work on VAs, AI, communications, and customer journey management. In the proposed model, VA evaluations are not only impacted by source, message and recipient characteristics (per prior communication models), but also by (1) VA/AI specific features, like perceptions of humanness and perceptions of artificiality, and (2) stage of the customer journey.Practical implicationsThis paper provides guidance to firms, as regards how VA communications may influence VA evaluations and usage intentions. As an initial conjecture, (1) increasing perceptions of humanness, (2) decreasing perceptions of artificiality (3) a better fit between communications style (e.g. abstract vs concrete), and request type (e.g. transactional vs informational) (4) a better fit between VA communications (e.g. information vs banter), and consumer perceptions of the VA (servant vs partner) and (5) a better fit between VA communications and the stage of the customer journey may positively influence VA evaluations and VA usage intentions.Originality/valueThis paper provides a fresh look at the impact of VA communications, clarifying how such communications impact VA evaluations and usage intentions at various stages of the customer journey.

Guest editorial: Opportunities and challenges at the crossroads of communication and services

“…Finally, Grewal et al (2022) boldly go where few researchers have gone before, and maybe should not. The authors explore neuro-enhanced reality as a novel approach for enhancing service communication between customers, frontline employees and service organizations that extends beyond current reality-enhanced service communication techniques based on augmented reality and virtual reality technologies.…”

Technologies in service communication: looking forward

“…The paper by Grewal et al (2022) leverages the opportunities of service customers' communication with AI-enabled voice assistants which are integrated into devices such as smartphones or smart speakers. Reviewing various communication theories, the authors developed research propositions and predicted that the relative absence of other non-verbal cues provide service customers with a unique interplay between source, message and recipient characteristics, which, in turn, determines the service experience.…”

“…The paper by Grewal et al. (2022) leverages the opportunities of service customers' communication with AI-enabled voice assistants which are integrated into devices such as smartphones or smart speakers.…”

“…From the service perspective, in essence all physical and virtual service encounters involve multifaceted communicative actions, which affect cooperative behavior with others and the perception of the service. The contemporary service view argues that communication processes varying in frequency, actions, modality, and content enable co-creation of value involving various actors (Gustafsson et al, 2012). In this logic, the value is derived from the integration of (un/intentional) messages from any sources contingent on the context, time and individual (Finne and Gr€ onroos, 2017).…”

“…Other technologies offer possibilities for human-like machine touchpoints and they create a shift from mainly human communication between various actors in the service domain to non-human communication between humans and machines (e.g. see Becker et al, 2022 andGrewal et al, 2022). In particular, the emerging AI-based service communication systems show great potential to move beyond the automation of human service and communication tasks to make autonomous decisions, recommendations, and self-generated service communications with agency.…”