You plan to manipulate me: A persuasion knowledge perspective for understanding the effects of AI-assisted selling

Although research about applying artificial intelligence (AI) to sales has strongly developed recently, new evidence points to consumer concerns about potential misuse or abuse of AI. This research focuses on whether AI-assisted (vs. human) selling influences consumers’ evaluation of service quality. We examined the impact of AI-assisted selling on perceived service quality across seven experiments (three in the Web Appendix). Drawing on the persuasion knowledge model, we found that consumers may view AI-assisted selling as a persuasive selling approach, thus reinforcing perceptions of manipulative intent, which, in turn, produces negative evaluations of service quality. Additionally, our findings indicate these adverse effects are more pronounced among consumers with high persuasion knowledge and when salespersons have a high level of expertise. Our research contributes to the growing literature on AI in sales and offers practical insights about how sales managers can use AI to integrate and enhance the consumer experience more effectively.