Influence of Intelligent Agent Anthropomorphic Image and Role on User Acceptance

Abstract: Recently intelligent agents have emerged as integral components facilitating the seamless utilization of smart devices in daily life. They serve as instrumental tools for enhancing the precision and efficiency of command execution in human-machine interaction. Despite the prevalence of intelligent agents, their anthropomorphic attributes need a better design to meet user expectations. Thus, investigating the influence of intelligent agent anthropomorphism in terms of user acceptance becomes a necessity.This study designed a mixed-design experiment with anthropomorphic image and role as independent variables and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, intention to use, and trust as dependent variables. The intelligent agent anthropomorphic image had two levels, namely virtual image and simplified image. The intelligent agent designed in this study had three roles, namely steward, assistant, and companion. The task was to plan a travel itinerary with the help of an intelligent agent.The findings reveal that significant differences exist among anthropomorphic images concerning users' perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, intention to use, and trust, with users expressing higher acceptance for anthropomorphic agents with simplified images. In the context of travel itinerary planning, no significant differences are observed in all dependent variables regarding anthropomorphic roles. There is no significant interaction effect between intelligent agent anthropomorphic image and role on user acceptance. These findings provide insights for the design of intelligent agent anthropomorphic images and roles.

Keywords: Intelligent Agents, Anthropomorphic Images, Roles, User Acceptance

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005413

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