Confirmatory Exploration of innovation in virtual exchanges through a study on Virtual Agents

Abstract

The use of Conversational Agents for consumer services continues to grow, and the service industry is no exception. Carried out among 340 Moroccan consumers, this study shows the importance of perceived anthropomorphism, social presence, perceived trust, social influence, perceived cost, and facilitating conditions of a conversational agent in increasing adoption intention using the UTAUT model. The expected effort had no effect. This research confirms the moderating role of age on the relationship between social influence and intention to use, while gender and level of education had no moderating effect. The technology acceptance model tested is a powerful tool for understanding why people do or do not use conversational agents. It can explain nearly 75,8% of the variance in behavioral intention. Various recommendations are put forward to optimize the design and successful implementation of chatbots, enabling them to take their rightful place among digital tools