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More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents

111
Citations
September 1, 2024
Published Date

Research Abstract & Technology Focus

To leverage the complementary strengths of humans and artificial intelligence (AI) in online service encounters, firms have begun to use hybrid service agents: combinations of AI agents (e.g., chatbots) and human agents (e.g., service employees) behind a single interface. However, it is unclear whether firms should be transparent about behind-the-scenes employees working in tandem with an AI-based chatbot to serve customers. Against this backdrop, we investigated the impact of human involvement disclosure on customer interactions with hybrid service agents. Our findings suggest that disclosing human involvement before or during an interaction with the hybrid service agent leads customers to adopt a more human-oriented communication style. This effect is driven by impression management concerns that are activated when customers become aware of humans working in tandem with the chatbot. The more human-oriented communication style ultimately increases employee workload because fewer customer requests can be handled automatically by the chatbot and must be delegated to a human. These findings provide novel insights into how and why disclosing human involvement affects customer communication behavior, reveal its negative consequences for employees working in tandem with a chatbot, and highlight the potential costs and benefits of providing transparency in customer–hybrid service agent interactions.
impact disclosing human involvement customer interactions
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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What is the core focus of the research titled 'More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents'?

This literature focuses on: To leverage the complementary strengths of humans and artificial intelligence (AI) in online service encounters, firms have begun to use hybrid service agents: combinations of AI agents (e.g., chatbots) and human agents (e.g., service employees) b...

Are there open-source GitHub repositories related to More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents?

Yes, open-source projects like slowmist/openclaw-security-practice-guide (This guide is designed for OpenClaw itself (Agent-facing), not as a traditional human-only hardening checklist.) are actively building upon these concepts.

Which startups are commercializing the technology behind More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents?

Products like Offsite are bringing this to market. Their focus is: Build teams of humans and agents, watch them work..

What other academic literature is closely related to 'More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents'?

Yes, highly correlated activity was mapped. An entry titled 'More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents' discusses this: To leverage the complementary strengths of humans and artificial intelligence (AI) in online service encounters, firms have begun to use hybrid ser...

Are there commercial applications of 'More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents' in market news publications?

Yes, highly correlated activity was mapped. An entry titled 'Chats with sycophantic AI make you less kind to others' discusses this: Even people who were sceptical of chatbots’ utility fell under the sway of the AI tools’ flattery.

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