Abstract

This study examines a double-edged sword effect that may affect consumer response when organizations announce their adoption of generative AI. This effect was found to be mediated by a decrease in consumers’ perceived humaneness toward the firm and an increase in their perceived innovativeness toward the firm in response to announcements of firm-generative AI collaboration. Using a 2 (collaboration type: human-generative AI vs. human-human) × 2 (collaboration dependence: low vs. high) between-participants design, 183 students completed an online survey using news article stimuli. Perceived humaneness decreased and perceived innovativeness increased after the announcement of a company’s use of generative AI, compared to the control condition in which the announcement was made about the company’s human-to-human collaboration. Furthermore, the more a company relied on generative AI, the more perceived humaneness decreased, while perceived innovativeness did not change significantly. We found that a decrease in perceived humaneness has a negative impact on consumers’ perceptions of service efforts, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions, while an increase in perceived innovativeness can have a positive impact. Furthermore, when service failures occurred after a company announced the introduction of generative AI, increases in humaneness and innovativeness were associated with greater decreases in brand attitudes and purchase intentions, and increased negative word-of-mouth intentions. Given that AI will be increasingly utilized as AI technology advances, this study provides a new perspective on consumer responses to firms’ collaboration with AI. We propose that perceived humaneness and innovativeness may be important variables to explain both negative and positive consumer responses to companies’ use of generative AI.