Is artificial intelligence taking our jobs?

: A study of customer satisfaction created by customer service in online retail

Abstract

The world is constantly evolving and rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have contributed with a lot of changes in the recent years. The purpose of this study is to explore how customers experience different factors created by customer service affects customer satisfaction. This with a focus directed towards chat forums and perceived differences between AI chatbots and human support agents in a context characterized by complex buying processes. A conceptual model, based on previous research was created to understand which factors that affects customer satisfaction. To investigate the purpose of the thesis, three focus groups were then used to collect qualitative data. The analysis of the discussion revealed differences in the experiences of between AI and human support agent. The two most significant findings explained how previous research lacked understanding of how customers perceive time efficiency and the reasoning behind the perception of how AI chatbots lacked emotions and empathy. One conclusion was that both AI chatbots and human support agents can be beneficial, but customers prefer human support agents in complexed buying process due to their ability to be responsive and understanding. Thus, this thesis has contributed to a better understanding of what customers believe affects their customer satisfaction the most.

Date of Award	2024-Jun
Original language	English
Supervisor	Stefan Karlsson (Supervisor) & Heléne Tjärnemo (Examiner)