Impact of Personal Intelligent Agent's Anthropomorphism on Gen-Z Consumers' Intention in the Retail Sector

A personal intelligent agent (PIA) is a device that uses natural language to help a person act in an intelligent way. Siri and Alexa are two examples. These agents are powerful computer programs that can work on their own and be proactive. They can also learn and adapt to change, respond to their surroundings, finish tasks in a good amount of time, and talk to the user using natural language to understand directions and write answers. However, from an anthropomorphism perspective, this phenomenon is underexplained as to how personal intelligent assistant services can affect consumers' behavioral intention in extant literature. Thus, in order to address this empirical knowledge void, an extensive literature review was undertaken and five hypotheses were derived to explain the potential relationships. Quantitative methodology with a survey strategy was undertaken drawing an effective sample size of 254 Gen-Z consumers. Furthermore, analysis was carried out using Smart partial least squares (PLS)-structural equation modelling. The study first finds a significant direct relationship between the perceived anthropomorphism, perceived enjoyment and perceived trust. Furthermore, perceived enjoyment and perceived trust significantly impact on awe experience and purchase intention among the Gen- Z retail consumers. The findings shed the light on improving customer experience and marketing effectiveness through IPA.