If you’ve tried to dispute a charge from an online retailer or used a “chat with us” function on most websites, chances are you’ve been talking to a robot. Not something like you see in Westworld, mind you, but an A.I.-driven chatbot.
And a new study out of the University of Florida says even if you’ve figured that out, you’re not likely to mind, provided the chatbot does its job in a human-like way.
The findings, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, explained the university’s study: 172 people were selected to chat with either bots or human customer service reps from companies including Express, Amazon, and Best Buy.
First off, 63 of the 172 participants couldn’t tell if there was a human or an A.I. brain behind the chat window. This level of “perceived humanness” helped boost the customer’s confidence in that company.
“If people felt like if it was human — either with really good A.I. or with a real person — then they felt like the organization was investing in the relationship,” said study author Tom Kelleher in a university release. “They’ll say, ‘Okay, this company is actually trying. They’ve put some time or resources into this, and therefore I trust the organization.'”
Furthermore, some subjects admitted preferring a chatbot to a real person — sometimes — according to the study’s authors. “If I’m just trying to get an insurance quote, I would almost rather put something into an app then have to make small talk about the weather,” Kelleher illustrates. “But later on, if my house floods, I’m going to want to talk to a real person.”
The researchers also wondered if in the case of sensitive matters, like healthcare, a company has the ethical duty to inform customers that they’re speaking with a chatbot.