Consumer response to emotion-expressing artificial intelligence in customer services: the role of brand relationship norms and expectation (dis)confirmation

Purpose Emotion-expressing AI in customer service can produce mixed, context-dependent outcomes. This study investigates the joint effect of AI emotional expression and consumer brand relationship norms on consumer satisfaction and continuance intention and tests expectation confirmation as the mediating mechanism and AI mind perception as the boundary condition. Design/methodology/approach This research adopts a multi-experiment design comprising three between-subjects experiments with a combined total sample of 677 participants. Findings The interaction between AI emotional expression and brand relationship norms significantly affects consumer satisfaction and continuance intention. For communal consumers, high (vs low) AI emotional expression elevates satisfaction and continuance intention, whereas this effect is non-significant for exchange consumers. This interaction is mediated by expectation confirmation. Moreover, consumers' mind perception of AI moderates the strength of this effect: the positive impact of high AI emotional expression on communal consumers emerges only under high AI mind perception. Practical implications Organizations can calibrate (rather than standardize) AI emotional expression based on consumers' brand relationship norms. For communal relationships, stronger emotional expressiveness is beneficial. Managers can also increase customers' mind perception of AI's experiential capacity through interaction design and user education to amplify the benefits of emotional AI. Originality/value This research contributes by integrating brand relationship norms into the AI service literature to explain divergent effects of AI emotional expression. It elucidates the mechanism via expectation confirmation theory and introduces AI mind perception as a critical boundary condition, offering a more comprehensive understanding of human–AI interaction dynamics in service settings.