Artificial intelligence and customers’ intention to use robo-advisory in banking services

Research background: Robo-advisory is a modern and rapidly developing area of implementing artificial intelligence to support customer decision-making. The current significance of robo-advisory to the financial sector is minor or marginal, and boils down to formulating recommendations and implementing investment strategies. However, the ongoing digital transformation of the economy leads us to believe that in the near future this technology will also be much more widely used with banking products. This makes it necessary for banks and other financial institutions to be prepared to offer this service to their customers. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to identify factors significantly influencing bank customers’ intention to use robo-advisory. Identification of robo-advisory acceptance factors may increase the effectiveness of banks' promotional activities regarding such a service. Methods: Empirical data was obtained through a survey conducted on a representative sample of 911 Polish respondents aged 18–65. Using a multilevel ordered logit model and methods based on machine learning algorithms, the authors identified variables relating to the demographic and socio-economic characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes of consumers that primarily determine respondents’ adoption of robo-advisory. Findings & value added: The results of the study indicate that the variables regarding the respondents' attitude towards the use of artificial intelligence in banking services turned out to be the most important from the point of view of acceptance of robo-advisory. Next in terms of importance were the variables presenting respondents' assessments of the ethics of financial services. An important finding is that experience in using basic financial services is not a significant factor when accepting robo-advisory. From the practical perspective, the article provides recommendations on the use of artificial intelligence technology in finance and ethical aspects of the provision of such services by banks.