Purpose

The rapid innovation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology promotes the prosperity of the AI product market. However, consumers seem to have negative attitudes (e.g. prejudice, aversion) toward AI products and services. Those negative attitudes are rooted in the fear that AI might replace humans. The authors thus propose that turning the image of AI from substitutes to facilitators can alleviate identity threat perception. This paper aims to examine how the image of AI products (facilitators vs substitutes) influences consumer evaluation and explores the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses four experiments with between-subjects designs to investigate whether the image of AI products (facilitators vs substitutes) will affect consumer evaluation in specific consumption and service scenarios. The same products (or services) were manipulated as “substitute” or “facilitator” through advertisement slogans. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition and read the advertisement, then they reported their evaluation. The mediator perceived identity threat and the moderator preconceived perceptions of AI risks were measured by scales. The moderator, self-affirmation, was manipulated through the instruction of the experiment.

Findings

This study demonstrates that consumers give higher evaluation of AI products in the image of the facilitator than in the image of the substitute (Study 1). The underlying mechanism is that the perceived identity threat caused by “facilitator” products is lower than “substitute” products (Study 2). The effect of AI image is moderated by consumers’ preconceived perceptions of AI risks (Study 3) and self-affirmation (Study 4). Specifically, for consumers who have a strong AI risk-perception, this effect exists, but it disappears for consumers who have a weak AI risk perception. When consumers are given a strong self-affirmation, the negative impact of the “substitute” image disappears.

Originality/value

This paper analyzes the psychological root of consumers’ negative evaluation of AI technology from the perspective of AI’s image. The proposed typology of “substitutes” and “facilitators” helps expand the vision on brand/product image and enriches the research on consumer self-identity in today’s highly informatized market. The findings shed light on how to choose appropriate image for AI products, which will be crucial for increasing consumers’ acceptance of AI products.

中文翻译：

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“促进者”vs“替代者”：人工智能产品形象对消费者评价的影响

目的

人工智能（AI）技术的快速创新推动了人工智能产品市场的繁荣。然而，消费者似乎对人工智能产品和服务持消极态度（如偏见、厌恶）。这些消极态度源于对人工智能可能取代人类的恐惧。作者因此提出，将人工智能的形象从替代者转变为促进者可以减轻身份威胁感知。本文旨在研究 AI 产品的形象（促进者与替代者）如何影响消费者评价，并探讨其潜在机制和边界条件。

设计/方法/途径

本研究使用四个受试者间设计的实验来调查 AI 产品的形象（促进者与替代者）是否会影响特定消费和服务场景中的消费者评价。相同的产品（或服务）通过广告口号被操纵为“替代品”或“促进者”。参与者被随机分配到一个条件并阅读广告，然后他们报告他们的评价。调解人感知到的身份威胁和调解人对人工智能风险的先入为主的看法是通过量表来衡量的。主持人，自我肯定，是通过实验的指导来操纵的。

发现

这项研究表明，与替代者的形象相比，消费者在促进者形象中对 AI 产品的评价更高（研究 1）。潜在的机制是“辅助”产品引起的感知身份威胁低于“替代”产品（研究 2）。AI 形象的影响受到消费者对 AI 风险的先入为主的认知（研究 3）和自我肯定（研究 4）的调节。具体来说，对于人工智能风险感知强的消费者，这种效应存在，而对于人工智能风险感知弱的消费者，则该效应消失。当消费者得到强烈的自我肯定时，“替代”形象的负面影响就消失了。

原创性/价值

本文从人工智能形象的角度分析了消费者对人工智能技术产生负面评价的心理根源。所提出的“替代品”和“促进者”类型学有助于扩大品牌/产品形象的视野，丰富当今高度信息化市场中消费者自我认同的研究。这些发现揭示了如何为 AI 产品选择合适的图像，这对于提高消费者对 AI 产品的接受度至关重要。