Examining the impact of communication modality on perceived social presence in e-commerce virtual assistants

Human-computer interactions have been profoundly changed by the increasing use of Virtual Assistants (VAs) into a variety of digital ecosystems which improved user capability to perform several tasks such as receive product recommendations and complete online transactions. Although text-based chatbots have long been used in different contexts, little is known about the potential of video-based VAs, in particular in e-commerce settings. This study aims to examine how VA textual versus video communication modalities impacts user’s VA perceived social presence, and how this perception influences trust, engagement, intention to use and overall satisfaction with the assistant. The proposed conceptual model was tested using a structural equation modelling approach. The results showed that video-based VAs are perceived as more socially present than textual-based one. This perception triggers a ripple effect that strengthens user trust and engagement, ultimately generating higher levels of satisfaction and a greater propensity to use the VA. This study adds to the expanding corpus of research on human-VA interactions. E-commerce services could benefit from these results by improving their customer satisfaction through more human-like interactions using video-based VAs.