IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v81y2025ics0160791x2500020x.html

How do users adopt AI-generated content (AIGC)? An exploration of content cues and interactive cues

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Chenxi
  • Lin, Yixun
  • Chen, Ruqing
  • Chen, Jing (Elaine)

Abstract

Despite the growing adoption of AI-generated content (AIGC), its full potential remains underexplored. This study investigates the factors driving AIGC adoption and uncovers the psychological mechanisms underlying this process, grounded on the Information Adoption Model (IAM) integrated with the Cognition-Motivation-Emotion framework. Based on Structural Equation Modeling analysis, we find that AIGC adoption is shaped by content cues (perceived intelligence and anthropomorphism) and interactive cues (performance and effort expectancy), with emotions mediating the adoption process. This study enriches information processing literature by advancing IAM to accommodate the dynamic and iterative nature of AIGC adoption. It also establishes AIGC as a distinct category of digital content for the digital content adoption literature. Moreover, it shifts the focus of AI adoption research from technology adoption to content adoption.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Chenxi & Lin, Yixun & Chen, Ruqing & Chen, Jing (Elaine), 2025. "How do users adopt AI-generated content (AIGC)? An exploration of content cues and interactive cues," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:81:y:2025:i:c:s0160791x2500020x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X2500020X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102830?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eugene Cheng-Xi Aw & Tao Zha & Stephanie Hui-Wen Chuah, 2023. "My new financial companion! non-linear understanding of Robo-advisory service acceptance," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3-4), pages 185-212, March.
    2. Askerbekov, Dauren & Garza-Reyes, Jose Arturo & Roy Ghatak, Ranjit & Joshi, Rohit & Kandasamy, Jayakrishna & Luiz de Mattos Nascimento, Daniel, 2024. "Embracing drones and the Internet of drones systems in manufacturing – An exploration of obstacles," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Ivanov, Stanislav & Soliman, Mohammad & Tuomi, Aarni & Alkathiri, Nasser Alhamar & Al-Alawi, Alamir N., 2024. "Drivers of generative AI adoption in higher education through the lens of the Theory of Planned Behaviour," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Hair, Joe F. & Howard, Matt C. & Nitzl, Christian, 2020. "Assessing measurement model quality in PLS-SEM using confirmatory composite analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 101-110.
    5. Li, Chia-Ying & Fang, Yu-Hui, 2022. "The more we get together, the more we can save? A transaction cost perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    6. Stephanie Watts Sussman & Wendy Schneier Siegal, 2003. "Informational Influence in Organizations: An Integrated Approach to Knowledge Adoption," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 47-65, March.
    7. Ehsan Abedi & Davood Ghorbanzadeh & Atena Rahehagh, 2019. "Influence of eWOM information on consumers’ behavioral intentions in mobile social networks," Journal of Advances in Management Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(1), pages 84-109, September.
    8. Yaxin Ming & Chenxi Li & Jing (Elaine) Chen, 2021. "Acquisition mode and credit card overspending behavior: An empirical analysis of the credit card industry," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 232-253, March.
    9. Von Kriegstein, Hasko, 2017. "Effort and Achievement," Utilitas, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 27-51, March.
    10. Gupta, Rohit & Rathore, Bhawana, 2024. "Exploring the generative AI adoption in service industry: A mixed-method analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. Ma, Xiaoyue & Huo, Yudi, 2023. "Are users willing to embrace ChatGPT? Exploring the factors on the acceptance of chatbots from the perspective of AIDUA framework," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Lin, Jiada & Wan, Haiyuan & Yu, Yangcheng, 2024. "What you breathe makes you poor: The effect of air pollution on income," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    13. Tseng, Shun-Yao & Wang, Ching-Nan, 2016. "Perceived risk influence on dual-route information adoption processes on travel websites," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2289-2296.
    14. Li, Chenxi & Chen, Jing (Elaine) & Peng, Siyu & Huang, Jinsong & Sha, Xiqing, 2024. "Examining the effects of weather on online shopping cart abandonment: Evidence from an online retailing platform," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Filieri, Raffaele & Alguezaui, Salma & McLeay, Fraser, 2015. "Why do travelers trust TripAdvisor? Antecedents of trust towards consumer-generated media and its influence on recommendation adoption and word of mouth," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 174-185.
    16. Li, Chenxi & Xia, Xinyue & Lin, Yixun & Wen, Hanlin, 2024. "Polluted cognition: The effect of air pollution on online purchasing behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. Li, Yunjian & Song, Yixiao & Sun, Yanming & Zeng, Mingzhuo, 2024. "When do employees learn from artificial intelligence? The moderating effects of perceived enjoyment and task-related complexity," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Ehsan Abedi & Davood Ghorbanzadeh & Atena Rahehagh, 2019. "Influence of eWOM information on consumers’ behavioral intentions in mobile social networks," Journal of Advances in Management Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(1), pages 84-109, September.
    19. Xuejing Ma, 2023. "Social Influence on Digital Content Contribution and Consumption," Management for Professionals, Springer, number 978-981-99-6737-7, December.
    20. Marko Sarstedt & Jun-Hwa Cheah, 2019. "Partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS: a software review," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(3), pages 196-202, September.
    21. Vanja Vitezić & Marko Perić, 2021. "Artificial intelligence acceptance in services: connecting with Generation Z," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(13-14), pages 926-946, October.
    22. Gursoy, Dogan & Chi, Oscar Hengxuan & Lu, Lu & Nunkoo, Robin, 2019. "Consumers acceptance of artificially intelligent (AI) device use in service delivery," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 157-169.
    23. Ruparel, Namita & Bhardwaj, Seema & Seth, Himanshu & Choubisa, Rajneesh, 2023. "Systematic literature review of professional social media platforms: Development of a behavior adoption career development framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    24. Chatterjee, Sheshadri & Rana, Nripendra P. & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Baabdullah, Abdullah M., 2021. "Understanding AI adoption in manufacturing and production firms using an integrated TAM-TOE model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hou, Chenxuan & Li, Tingting & Gu, Yanzhang, 2026. "Artificial intelligence versus human providers for personalized solutions? The influence of expected group size and perceived uniqueness on adoption intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Njuguna, Gerald Nderitu & Qingfei, Min, 2026. "How would prompt completion editing impact user experience scores in academic research with large language models?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Zhang, Fengyang & Sheng, Dongfang, 2026. "Anthropomorphism’s impact on chatbot adoption: A meta-analytic structural equation modeling approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Halder, Deepa & Pradhan, Debasis & Roy Chaudhuri, Himadri, 2021. "Forty-five years of celebrity credibility and endorsement literature: Review and learnings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 397-415.
    2. Zhu, Tengteng & Lin, Zhibin & Liu, Xin, 2023. "The future is now? Consumers' paradoxical expectations of human-like service robots," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    3. John, Surej P. & De'Villiers, Rouxelle, 2020. "Elaboration of marketing communication through visual media: An empirical analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Kyoungmin Lee & Minsung Kim & Sohyun Yoon & Jin-young Kim, 2025. "Use of central bank digital currency in the travel context," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 449-476, June.
    5. Kumar, Sachin & Kumar, Vinod & Chaudhuri, Ranjan & Chatterjee, Sheshadri & Vrontis, Demetris, 2025. "AI capability and environmental sustainability performance: Moderating role of green knowledge management," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Zhang Yu & Muhammad Umar & S. Abdul Rehman, 2022. "Adoption of technological innovation and recycling practices in automobile sector: under the Covid-19 pandemic," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 298-306, June.
    7. Wang Jiatong & Zheng Wang & Majid Murad, 2026. "Examining sustainable entrepreneurial behavior among university students: the role of environmental factors, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and green consumption commitment," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-27, March.
    8. Saumyaranjan Sahoo & Ashwani Kumar & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Anurag Tiwari, 2024. "Industry 4.0 adoption and eco‐product innovation capability—Understanding the role of supply chain integration," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(8), pages 8798-8814, December.
    9. Pramanik, Paritosh & Jana, Rabin K. & Ghosh, Indranil, 2024. "AI readiness enablers in developed and developing economies: Findings from the XGBoost regression and explainable AI framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    10. van de Sanden, Stephanie & Willems, Kim & Brengman, Malaika, 2022. "How customers motive attributions impact intentions to use an interactive kiosk in-store," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. Adam C. Merkle & Catherine Hessick & Britton R. Leggett & Larry Goehrig & Kenneth O’Connor, 2020. "Exploring the components of brand equity amid declining ticket sales in Major League Baseball," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(3), pages 149-164, September.
    12. Yapanto, Lis M, 2021. "Supply chain management and logistic presentation: Mediation effect of competitive advantage," OSF Preprints ze96v, Center for Open Science.
    13. Xu, Xing'an & Liu, Juan, 2022. "Artificial intelligence humor in service recovery," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    14. R. Filieri & F. Acikgoz & D. Hao, 2023. "Electronic word-of-mouth from video bloggers: The role of content quality and source homophily across hedonic and utilitarian products," Post-Print hal-04713695, HAL.
    15. Singu, Hari Babu & Chakraborty, Debarun & Troise, Ciro & Camilleri, Mark Anthony & Bresciani, Stefano, 2026. "Responsible AI for trustworthy tourism: A framework for mitigating ambiguity and anxiety with generative AI," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    16. Ammar Shareiyat & Hisham Noori Hussain Al-hashimy & Alaa Khalaf Hamoud & Mohammed Alshawki, 2025. "The Effect of Consumer’s Intention and Feedback for the Use of Mobile NFC Payment Technology," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 163-178.
    17. Prerna Garg & Anoop Pandey, 2023. "Decomposing the Effect of Brand Image in Influencing Information Adoption: The Case of Online Travel Agents," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 11(1), pages 11-27, January.
    18. Wang, Zhengpei & Yang, Xue, 2019. "Understanding backers’ funding intention in reward crowdfunding: An elaboration likelihood perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    19. Gala-Velásquez, Bernardo De la & Ruiz-Ortega, María José & García-Villaverde, Pedro Manuel & Hurtado-Palomino, Américo, 2024. "Can ambidexterity lead to pioneering orientation in adverse situations? A new approach about when and how," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    20. Florian Schuberth, 2021. "Confirmatory composite analysis using partial least squares: setting the record straight," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 1311-1345, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:81:y:2025:i:c:s0160791x2500020x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.