AI Bias in Online Service Recovery
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2025-07-03
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en
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As AI chatbots become increasingly common in online service recovery, concerns arise about how their use affects consumer perceptions. This study examines whether the awareness that a service agent is AI, as opposed to human, impacts perceptions of fairness, empathy, privacy, and recovery satisfaction, regardless of the quality of the recovery.
Using a 2x2 scenario-based experimental design (N = 125), participants were exposed to either a high or low-quality service recovery delivered by an AI chatbot or a human agent. Results show that AI agents are perceived as less empathic, less privacy-protective, and lower in interactional fairness. Privacy and interactional fairness were perceived less when the recovery was conducted by AI, regardless of the quality of the recovery. However, recovery satisfaction was not significantly impacted by agent type. Notably, the effect of agent type on empathy was moderated by recovery quality.
The study contributes to service recovery literature by incorporating AI bias into online service recoveries and highlighting that consumer perceptions are shaped not only by service quality but also by who or what delivers the service. Practical implications suggest organizations should humanize chatbot design and communicate transparently to build trust.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen