A comparison of conversational chatbots and the internet for consumer information search

This study compares consumer perceptions of conversational chatbots and the internet for information search. While the internet is a mature platform, conversational chatbots represent an emerging technology, and insight into how consumers view them in relation to the internet for information search is lacking. Drawing on the information source utility perspective, the study builds a comparative model based on four key dimensions: information currency, information customisation, information trustworthiness, and media richness. Additionally, the study investigates consumers’ prior experience with conversational chatbots as a moderating factor. Data was collected from 191 respondents recruited through MTurk. Paired sample t-tests assessed mean differences between the internet and conversational chatbots along the four dimensions of information source utility, while ANOVA assessed the effect of prior experience on the mean differences. The findings show that the internet is perceived as a superior platform across all four dimensions. Perceived gaps were wider for the information currency and media richness dimensions, but were narrower for the information customisation and information trustworthiness dimensions. Furthermore, consumers with greater prior chatbot experience perceived narrower gaps between the internet and conversational chatbots across all four dimensions than those with less experience. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.