Do I Desire Chatbots to be like Humans? Exploring Factors for Adoption of Chatbots for Financial Services

AI-powered chatbots are gaining traction across various industries, especially in the financial sector. Despite these implementations, chatbot adoption and usage among consumers is still low. Grounding on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) model and the Belief Desire Intentions (BDI) model, this study explores factors influencing the adoption of chatbots for financial sectors by emphasizing on the role of user desires in addition to human beliefs. Explicitly, the research hypothesizes the role of the humanness in chatbots influencing consumer adoption in the financial services sector. The suggested research model was tested via a sample of possible adopters from India, the USA, and Singapore. Results highlight the key role of consumer desires to make artificial machines indistinguishable from human beings. Implications for research and practice are also presented.