Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are widely used in the retail and distribution industry. The primary objective was to investigate whether the gender of AI agents influences trust and grounding. This paper examined the influence of AI agent gender and brand concepts on trust and grounding within virtual brand spaces. For this purpose, it used two independent variables: brand concept (functional vs. experiential) and AI agent gender (male vs. female). The dependent variables included AI agent trust and grounding. The study revealed that in virtual brand spaces centered around a functional concept, male AI agents generated higher levels of trust than female AI agents, whereas, when focused on an experiential concept, female AI agents induced higher levels of grounding than male AI agents. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the association between customers’ identification with AI agents and recommendations for actual brand purchases is mediated by trust and grounding. These findings support the idea that users who strongly identify with AI agents are more inclined to recommend brand products. By presenting alternatives that foster the establishment and sustenance of a meaningful, sustainable relationship between humans and AI, this study contributes to research on human–computer interactions.

中文翻译：

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人工智能代理性别对信任和基础的影响

人工智能（AI）代理广泛应用于零售和分销行业。主要目标是调查人工智能代理的性别是否影响信任和基础。本文研究了人工智能代理性别和品牌概念对虚拟品牌空间内的信任和基础的影响。为此，它使用了两个自变量：品牌概念（功能性与体验性）和人工智能代理性别（男性与女性）。因变量包括人工智能代理的信任和基础。研究表明，在以功能概念为中心的虚拟品牌空间中，男性人工智能代理比女性人工智能代理产生更高水平的信任，而当专注于体验概念时，女性人工智能代理比男性人工智能代理产生更高水平的基础。此外，研究结果表明，客户对人工智能代理的认同与实际品牌购买建议之间的关联是通过信任和基础来调节的。这些发现支持了这样的观点：强烈认同人工智能代理的用户更倾向于推荐品牌产品。通过提出促进人类与人工智能之间建立和维持有意义、可持续关系的替代方案，这项研究有助于人机交互的研究。