⇜she is not just a computer⇝: Gender role of AI chatbots in debt collection

Yiting Guo, De Liu, Ximing Yin, Sean Xin Xu

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Chatbots have been empowered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and rapidly applied to many industries. There is a call for more understanding of the effect of chatbots' social cues on business outcomes. This paper investigates how does the choice of chatbots' voice gender impacts customers' intention to repay overdue debt. Prior studies on gender differences have conflicting implications. Employing unique real business dataset, we find that for male customers, they are more willing to repay when served by female chatbots. However, female customers have no preference for the gender of chatbots. We finally explain the effect of chatbot gender in ten gender-stereotypical attributes (e.g., forceful and assertive of masculinity, gentle and warm of femininity). The results demonstrate that masculine attributes have significant negative effects on both male and female customers while feminine attributes only have significant (positive) effects on male customers. Based on the results, we further discuss the theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2020 - Making Digital Inclusive
    Subtitle of host publicationBlending the Local and the Global
    PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
    ISBN (Electronic)9781733632553
    Publication statusPublished - 2021
    Event2020 International Conference on Information Systems - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global, ICIS 2020 - Virtual, Online, India
    Duration: 13 Dec 202016 Dec 2020

    Publication series

    NameInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2020 - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global

    Conference

    Conference2020 International Conference on Information Systems - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global, ICIS 2020
    Country/TerritoryIndia
    CityVirtual, Online
    Period13/12/2016/12/20

    Keywords

    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Chatbot
    • Debt collection
    • Gender

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    Guo, Y., Liu, D., Yin, X., & Xu, S. X. (2021). ⇜she is not just a computer⇝: Gender role of AI chatbots in debt collection. In International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2020 - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global (International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2020 - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global). Association for Information Systems.