AI Powered Gamification: The New Catalyst in the Arena of Online Investment Platforms Impacting Behavioral Intentions

The purpose of the present study is to examine the antecedents of users’ behavioural intentions to adopt technology concerning the financial environment focusing on online investment applications and incorporating gamification. For this purpose, the components of UTAUT2 have been used to explain behavioral intentions, along with gamification being considered as the moderating variable. Data was collected from 510 investors to whom the questionnaire was sent, belonging to the National Capital Region of India, having experience of using these online platforms for their investment needs. Structural equation modelling and path analysis have been applied to conduct the desired analysis. The findings reveal that factors like performance and effort expectancy can help understand the intentions of users to adopt the online investment platforms. The study thus found that AI-based gamified online investment platforms have a multidimensional approach to user engagement. Each of these dimensions represents a critical aspect of users’ perception and their interaction with the system. For developers and marketers of AI powered gamified investment platforms, the practical implications of this study are meaningful. The findings indicate that increasing user engagement will require improvement in performance expectancy through enhancing easy-to-use design as well as improving investment outcomes (effort expectancy). Besides enhancing social influence capitalized on by social features, availability should be ensured so as to support facilitating conditions. As indicated by the extensive literature reviewed, not much attention has been paid to digitization of investment platforms and their adoption. Also, very few studies have been carried out to understand how integration of AI backed gamification has helped increasing acceptance of these service providers. Hence, the present work is one of the pioneering studies, where UTAUT2 has been applied to understand the users’ intention for online investment platforms adoption. Also, the study has made attempts to understand the role of gamifying features in this scenario.