Adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) based employee experience (EEX) chatbots

Purpose AI-based chatbots are revamping employee communication in organizations. This paper examines the adoption of AI-based employee experience chatbots by employees. Design/methodology/approach The proposed model is developed using behavioral reasoning theory and empirically validated by surveying 1,130 employees and data was analyzed with PLS-SEM. Findings This research presents the “reasons for” and “reasons against” for the acceptance of AI-based employee experience chatbots. The “reasons for” are – personalization, interactivity, perceived intelligence and perceived anthropomorphism and the “reasons against” are perceived risk, language barrier and technological anxiety. It is found that “reasons for” have a positive association with attitude and adoption intention and “reasons against” have a negative association. Employees' values for openness to change are positively associated with “reasons for” and do not affect attitude and “reasons against”. Originality/value This is the first study exploring employees' attitude and adoption intention toward AI-based EEX chatbots using behavioral reasoning theory.