Effect of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Chatbots on Customer Experience: A Case of the Zimbabwean Telecommunications Industry

Abstract

This study sought to examine the effect of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on customer experience. The case of Zimbabwe telecommunications industry. The study also sought to determine the effect of personalization of AI chatbots on customer experience, the effect of perceived humanness of AI chatbots on customer experience, the effect of social presence of AI chatbots on customer experience, the effect of perceived ease of use of AI chatbot on customer experience and the effect of perceived usefulness of AI chatbot on customer experience. Although a number of previous studies were conducted in line with the relationship between artificial intelligence and customer experience, it appears that not much has been done in Zimbabwe except for the studies done by Shambira and Kasongo whose scopes were only limited to AI adoption in the banking and insurance sectors. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy to comprehend the effect of artificial intelligence chatbots on customer experience. The philosophy is based on the belief that there are observable facts and laws that can be discovered through empirical research. Deductive paradigm was used since it is the best fitting approach to the positivism philosophy adopted both are objective, and structured and do not allow subjectivism. The researcher then adopted a quantitative research method. Quantitative approach was useful in this study to measure and analyse the correlation among AI chatbot dimensions and customer experience. The researcher used a survey comprising of customers selected from the telecommunications industry who have used the chatbot. A sample size of 350 respondents was used for this study and simple random sampling technique was adopted. 318 questionnaires were successfully completed and returned online. A cross-sectional descriptive research designs was used. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviation. Inferential statistics such as Pearson correlation analysis were also used to determine the strength and nature of the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The results indicated artificial intelligent chatbots influences the customer experience. The results also indicated that personalization, perceived humanness, social presence, PEOU and perceived usefulness of AI chatbots influence customer experience in the Zimbabwean telecommunications industry. This study therefore concluded that personalization, perceived humanness, social presence, PEOU, and perceived usefulness of AI chatbot have a significant effect on customer experience. In light of this, it was therefore recommended that companies in the Zimbabwean telecommunication industry those not yet using chatbots consider adopting AI chatbot technology to enhance their customer service.