Animated conversational agents and e-consumer productivity: The roles of agents and individual characteristics

This research presents two studies, in a lab (eye-tracking) and in a natural context, that highlight the effects of interacting with an animated conversational agents (ACA) on the objective and perceived econsumer productivity. Results from Study 1 specify that only objective e-consumer productivity depends on interaction with the ACA. Going further, Study 2 then reveals that individual characteristics affect perceived productivity, either independently from ACA use (for involvement or product familiarity) or in interaction with using the ACA (for Internet skills and need for interaction). These findings highlight the need to personalize websites that display an agent fitting user profiles.