Let me transfer you to our AI-based manager: Impact of manager-level job titles assigned to AI-based agents on marketing outcomes

• Human job titles (e.g., customer service manager) increase positive perceptions of the AI agents. • AI “manager” receives more favorable perceptions than AI “representative”. • The perception of AI manager differs depending on whom (AI or human) customers are transferred from. • The positive perceptions boost the marketing outcomes (e.g., AI agent’s persuasion). This paper examines to what extent the job titles assigned to AI agents can influence the customer’s perception of these agents and ultimately their marketing outcomes such as customer satisfaction, brand attitude, and intention to buy AI-recommended products. Also, this study explores how customers perceive the AI agent as the manager working with either a human or an AI representative. Across three experiments (using a scenario or a combination of a scenario and the real AI chatbot), the study shows that consumers perceive the AI manager more positively in terms of likeability, knowledgeability, and trustworthiness than the AI representative and the human manager. The customers perceive the AI manager more positively when they are transferred to the AI manager from a representative of the same kind (AI) than from a human representative. Further, the job titles given to the AI agents are found to have favorable downstream effects on customer satisfaction, brand attitude, and the customers’ intentions to buy the products recommended during the chat by the AI manager.