Trust Me, I’m a Bot – Repercussions of Chatbot Disclosure in Different Service Frontline Settings

Due to advancements in artificial intelligence, chatbots are often indistinguishable from humans. Regarding the question whether firms should disclose their chatbots' nonhuman identity or not, previous studies find negative consumer reactions to chatbot disclosure. By considering the role of trust and service-related context factors, this study explores how negative effects of chatbot disclosure for customer retention can be prevented. Results show that chatbot disclosure has a negative indirect effect on customer retention through mitigated trust for services with high criticality. In cases where a chatbot fails to handle the customer's service issue, disclosing the chatbot identity not only lacks negative impact but even elicits a positive effect on retention. These findings demonstrate that disclosing the chatbots' machine-like identity not only has undesirable consequences but can lead to positive reactions as well