Coping with vulnerability: the effect of trust in AI and privacy-protective behaviour on the use of AI-based services

AI-based service usage can be expanded if individuals perceive that they have the ability to control vulnerabilities and risks (e.g. data leakage, inaccurate information) associated with these technologies. Additionally, the issues of trust in AI and user privacy protection are key discussions in the implementation of e-government services. Accordingly, this study empirically verified the influence of individuals’ online skills, trust in AI, and privacy-protective behaviour on their AI-based service usage. The dataset comprised 48, 420 respondents aged 14–90 who were part of a South Korean survey on Internet usage in 2021. The main findings are as follows. First, trust in AI and privacy-protective behaviour positively impact AI-based service usage. Second, online skills do not impact AI-based service usage significantly. These findings offer implications for improving technical issues related to privacy protection and inaccurate information; they can also be used to inform efforts to bridge the digital divide in AI-based service usage. By empirically verifying the impact of an individual's vulnerability control behaviour and digital service utilisation ability in the use of AI-based services, this study suggests developing AI-based services with user trust in mind and implementing smart government policies.