Alexa, Please Do Me a Favor: Motivations and Perceived Values Involved in Using AI Assistant

Abstract

AI assistant, a software interface designed to interact with a user in a natural way and perform specific tasks on the user’s behalf, receives increasing attention from both scholars and practitioners. While most of the literatures explain about technical aspects, little is known about the social and psychological factors that intimately influence consumers when using it. This study sheds light on the reason people use AI assistant and how perceived values influence on intention of continuous usage. A total of 361 AI assistant users participated in an online survey, and all were recruited from a major online panel in South Korea. The results from the principal component analysis suggest five social and psychological motives: self-expression, quality of life, entertainment, information, and compatibility. In addition, perceived values, informativeness, entertainment, and trustworthiness, positively predict the intention to use AI assistant. This research provides theoretical contributions from finding motivations of AI assistant usage and from the effects of perceived values on the intention to use it. Practical implications should not be overlooked in this ever-expanding AI industry.