Abstract: In February 2023, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the “Overall layout planning for digital China”, which emphasizes promoting the deep integration of digital technology and the physical economy, and accelerating the application of digital technology innovation. Based on big data and artificial intelligence, digital technology is an important engine for promoting Chinese path to modernization and a strong support for building new national competitive advantages. Many companies are continuously advancing their digitization efforts by applying artificial intelligence technology to production, operations, and expanding into the service sector to replace human employees, thereby saving labor costs. This trend is gradually becoming more widespread. However, unlike this positive trend, a large number of customers exhibit aversion or resistance to artificial intelligence, leading to their reluctance to accept AI. Existing research results are insufficient to provide effective guidance for the practical implementation of AI services, and there is little research that clearly identifies the mechanism by which artificial intelligence affects customers. This paper examines the differences in the impact of different anthropomorphic AI on customers, and analyzes the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the impact of anthropomorphic AI on customers' willingness to continue using it.
This study first reviews the research related to AI services and customers' intention to use them consistently, and based on the construal level theory, introduces the core variable of the psychological distance, and explores the mechanism of the influence of AI anthropomorphism level on customers' intention to use them consistently through three experiments. Experiment 1 mainly verifies the differences in the effects of different anthropomorphic AI on customers' intention to use consistently; Experiment 2 mainly examines the process mechanism by which the anthropomorphic level of AI affects customers' intention to use consistently and explores the mediating effect of the psychological distance; Experiment 3 tests the moderating effect of the consumption context. The results of the experiments are as follows: customers have a higher intention to continue using the AI when faced with high anthropomorphism; psychological distance plays a mediating role in the above effect; the consumption context plays a moderating role in the above effect; in the hedonic context, the higher the level of anthropomorphism, the stronger the intention to continue using the AI; in the functional context, the effect of anthropomorphism is no longer significant.
The innovation of this studylies in its analysis of the utility of AI features from the perspective of psychological distance differences, which enriches the explanatory mechanism of the AI service research. This paper demonstrates the mechanism of the effect of AI anthropomorphism on customers' willingness to continue using AI. High anthropomorphism level will reduce customers' psychological distance to AI and thus increase customers' willingness to continue using it, while low anthropomorphism level will amplify customers' psychological distance. In addition, the study also explores the boundary conditions of anthropomorphism and verifies the moderating effect of consumption contexts, finding that anthropomorphism has a positive effect on customers in hedonic contexts. However, in a functional context, the effect of anthropomorphism disappears.
The practical significance of this study is that companies can improve the level of anthropomorphism in the application process of AI services according to the positive effect of anthropomorphism on customers, paying particular attention to reducing customers’ feeling of distance from AI. In addition, the adjustment of AI should also pay attention to the service context, for in the hedonic context, the use of higher level of anthropomorphic AI is more favored by customers; but in the functional context, customers are more concerned about the actual results obtained, so the degree of anthropomorphism should be controlled, and more attention should be paid to improving customer confidence in AI. Enterprises can conduct customer profiling analysis and pre-service evaluation to match AI precisely and adjust it dynamically. The findings of this paper have some guiding implications for the digital transformation of AI technology-enabled service industries and enterprises.

Key words: Artificial Intelligence, Anthropomorphism, Psychological Distance, Consumption Situation

摘要： 当前很多企业将人工智能技术应用于消费情境中,但部分顾客对人工智能存在厌恶与抗拒的态度。基于人工智能向顾客提供服务的情境,通过三个实验探究人工智能拟人化水平对顾客持续使用意愿的影响。研究一验证了高拟人化比低拟人化的人工智能获得更高的顾客持续使用意愿;研究二验证了心理距离的中介作用,即顾客在面对高拟人化的人工智能时,会因更近的心理距离产生更高的持续使用意愿;研究三验证了消费情境的调节作用,即对于享乐型消费情境,人工智能拟人化水平越高,顾客持续使用意愿越强,但对于功能型消费情境,高拟人化的人工智能并不能促使顾客产生更强的持续使用意愿。研究结论对企业优化人工智能服务的应用具有指导意义。

关键词: 人工智能, 拟人化, 心理距离, 消费情境