From Design to Contribution: How AI Chatbots Shape Value Co-Creation in Online Retail in Morocco

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are now central to online retail, yet little is known about how their specific design attributes enable customer value co-creation (VCC), or whether these links hold across cultures. Drawing on service-dominant (S-D) logic, cross-cultural consumer research, and the DART (dialogue, access, risk assessment, transparency) model, this study develops and tests a framework that links five chatbot design attributes to the four DART dimensions and, in turn, to customer outcomes. Survey data from 562 online shoppers in Morocco with recent chatbot experience were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Responsiveness and personalization drive dialogue; usability and information quality enhance access; personalization and information quality support risk assessment; and information quality is the dominant driver of transparency. Anthropomorphism (human-likeness) has no significant effect on dialogue. Dialogue and access increase customer satisfaction, which in turn strongly predicts loyalty and purchase intention. The study extends S-D logic to human–AI interaction. Read against Morocco’s culture and developing e-commerce market, the results suggest that functional chatbot features are likely to work across markets, whereas social features such as human-likeness depend on culture. The study offers propositions for cross-country research and guidance on what global retailers should standardize or localize.