How should voice assistants be heard? The mitigating effect of verbal and vocal warmth in voice assistant service failure

ABSTRACTABSTRACTVoice assistants have become increasingly popular touchpoints in AI-infused service encounters in the hospitality industry. Although we have seen a growing body of research in this area, little attention has been paid to specific service failures involving exclusively voice interactions. Drawing from the Computers As Social Actors (CASA) research paradigm and the Stereotype Content Model, this research explores how warmth can mitigate the negative consequences of service failure involving voice assistants. In two experiments using both physiological (EDA) and psychological measures, we show that the perception of warmth improves consumers' emotional reactions and increases re-patronage intention following a negative service outcome. We also found that the optimal voice to be used for a voice assistant is a dynamic speech style combined with emotionally expressive and warm verbal content. These findings contribute to the knowledge of voice-based smart service interaction and provide insight into how to mitigate the negative consequences of service failure involving voice assistants.摘要在酒店行业, 语音助手已成为一个越来越受欢迎的基于人工智能的客户触点。尽管这一领域的研究日益增长,但很少有学者关注仅涉及语音交互的特定服务失败。借鉴计算机作为社会 参与者 (CASA) 研究范式和刻板印象内容模型,本研究探讨了温暖如何减轻涉及语音助手的 服务失败的负面影响。在两个使用生理 (EDA) 和心理测量的实验中,结果表明,温暖的感 知改善了消费者的情绪反应,并提升了负面服务结果后的再次光顾意愿。我们还发现,用于 语音助手的最佳声音是动态语音风格,结合高度温暖的语言内容。这些发现有助于了解基于 语音的智能服务交互,并针对如何减轻涉及语音助手的服务失败的负面影响提供了新的见 解。KEYWORDS: Artificial Intelligence (AI)voice assistantwarmthservice failurespeech stylere-patronage intention关键词: 人工智能;语音助手; 温暖;服务失败;语音风格;复购意愿 Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).