A new friend in our smartphone?: observing interactions with chatbots in the search of emotional engagement

We present the findings of a quantitative and qualitative empirical research to understand the possibilities of engagement and affection in the use of conversational agents (chatbots). Based on an experiment with 13 participants, we explored on one hand the correlation between the user expectation, user experience and intended use and, on the other, whether users feel keen and engaged in having a personal, empathic relation with an intelligent system like chatbots. We used psychological questionnaires to semi-structured interviews for disentangle the meaning of the interaction. In particular, the personal psychological background of participants was found critical while the experience itself allowed them to imagine new possible relations with chatbots. Our results show some insights on how people understand and empathize with future interactions with conversational agents and other non-visual interfaces.