Purpose

The automation of services is rapidly growing, led by sectors such as banking and financial investment. The growing number of investments managed by artificial intelligence (AI) suggests that this technology-based service will become increasingly popular. This study examines how customers' technology readiness and service awareness affect their intention to use analytical AI investment services.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses were tested with a data set of 404 North American-based potential customers of robo-advisors. In addition to technology readiness dimensions, the potential customers' characteristics were included in the framework as moderating factors (age, gender and previous experience with financial investment services). A post-hoc analysis examined the roles of service awareness and the financial advisor's name (i.e., robo-advisor vs. AI-advisor).

Findings

The results indicated that customers' technological optimism increases, and insecurity decreases, their intention to use robo-advisors. Surprisingly, feelings of technological discomfort positively influenced robo-advisor adoption. This interesting finding challenges previous insights into technology adoption and value co-creation as analytical AI puts customers into a very passive role and reduces barriers to technology adoption. The research also analyzes how consumers become aware of robo-advisors, and how this influences their acceptance.

Originality/value

This is the first study to analyze the role of customers' technology readiness in the adoption of analytical AI. The authors link the findings to previous technology adoption and automated services' literature and provide specific managerial implications and avenues for further research.

中文翻译：

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在服务中使用分析性人工智能 (AI) 的意图——技术准备和意识的影响

目的

在银行和金融投资等行业的带动下，服务自动化正在迅速发展。由人工智能 (AI) 管理的投资越来越多，这表明这种基于技术的服务将越来越受欢迎。本研究考察了客户的技术准备情况和服务意识如何影响他们使用分析性 AI 投资服务的意图。

设计/方法/方法

使用包含 404 名北美机器人顾问潜在客户的数据集对假设进行了测试。除了技术准备方面，潜在客户的特征也被纳入框架作为调节因素（年龄、性别和以前的金融投资服务经验）。事后分析检查了服务意识的作用和财务顾问的姓名（即机器人顾问与人工智能顾问）。

发现

结果表明，客户的技术乐观情绪增加，不安全感降低，他们使用机器人顾问的意图。令人惊讶的是，技术不适感对机器人顾问的采用产生了积极影响。这一有趣的发现挑战了以前对技术采用和价值共同创造的见解，因为分析性 AI 将客户置于非常被动的角色并减少了技术采用的障碍。该研究还分析了消费者如何意识到机器人顾问，以及这如何影响他们的接受度。

原创性/价值

这是第一项分析客户技术准备在采用分析型 AI 中的作用的研究。作者将这些发现与以前的技术采用和自动化服务的文献联系起来，并为进一步研究提供了具体的管理意义和途径。