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AI and human interaction in e-commerce platforms: analysing the consequential effects through empirical investigation

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  • Sunanjita Mahajan
  • Vinay Chauhan

Abstract

The rising ubiquity of AI-enabled chatbots in the e-commerce sector, as a substitute for human agents, necessitates investigating how their interactions with customers influence various customer outcomes. Rather than focusing solely on chatbot interactions, which prior research has substantially addressed, this paper empirically investigates if the impact of AI-enabled interaction and human interaction varies across behavioural outcomes. For the study objective, data is collected through an online survey and is subjected to structured equation modelling. The results reported that where human interaction significantly leads to engagement and advocacy, AI-enabled interaction surprisingly could only influence customer engagement and not advocacy behaviour. Moreover, the moderation analysis found that the complexity of the task presented to the service provider, AI-chatbot/human agent, significantly impacts the AI - enabled interaction and engagement relationship, but does not deter the ability of human agents to induce engagement. These results offer useful implications for e-retailers in integrating AI- backed technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Sunanjita Mahajan & Vinay Chauhan, 2026. "AI and human interaction in e-commerce platforms: analysing the consequential effects through empirical investigation," International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(1), pages 80-103.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijemre:v:17:y:2026:i:1:p:80-103
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