Influence of Chatbot Experience on Consumer Trust in Conversational Commerce

Abstract

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in retail has transformed the nature of online customer engagement, yet trust remains a key challenge for conversational commerce. This study investigates the influence of chatbot experience on consumer trust and examines the moderating role of interaction frequency among chatbot users in Kerala. Data were collected from 100 respondents using a structured questionnaire that employed validated scales for chatbot experience and trust. Linear regression results revealed that chatbot experience significantly predicts trust in chatbots (β = 0.634, p < .001), explaining 41% of the variance in trust. However, moderation analysis using the medmod module in Jamovi 2.6.44 showed that interaction frequency does not significantly moderate this relationship (β = –0.0735, p = .262). These findings suggest that while an enhanced chatbot experience fosters greater consumer trust, repeated interaction alone does not strengthen this association. The study contributes to the growing body of literature on conversational commerce by emphasising the primacy of experiential quality—usability, personalisation, responsiveness, and satisfaction—over usage frequency in building trust toward AI-based service agents. Practical implications highlight the need for marketers to design emotionally intelligent, context-aware chatbots that deliver human-like, value-adding experiences to sustain long-term consumer engagement.