A Multi-Method Study on ICAs User Experiences and Brand Relationships: An Abstract

Intelligent Conversational Agents (ICAs) have emerged as a tool for supporting customer service activities in myriad industry sectors. Along with social platforms, virtual agents are the main tool when it comes engaging contact with customers, having an additional advantage of constant availability. Recent forms of communication raised new realities about the perception of interpersonal relationships and branding. This study proposes a multi-methodological approach to better understand how the use of ICAs impacts the perception of realities in brand experiences and relationships. Through three studies, data mining, qualitative and mixed, we discovered that individuals build various construal representations in the presence of psychological distance to the brand. First, when interacting with distant brands, consumers seek the prevalence of brand imagery congruence, cognitive experiences, or social presence in the perceived quality of the service. In contrast, when psychological proximity occurs, the post-phenomenological perspective excels through kinesthetic experience, perception of the quasi-sentient other, and customer orientation. Results illustrate how individuals perceive conversational agents as a social extension of brands, resulting in a relationship of both alterity and immersion. In light of these results, we further discuss theoretical and managerial contributions.