The Effects of Chatbot Gender on Consumer Buying Intention for Products: Human-AI Interactions in the E-Commerce Context

As conversational commerce increasingly integrates chatbot sales agents into consumer online shopping experiences, understanding how AI chatbots influence consumer decision making has become essential for consumer behavior research that supports marketing practice. This research examines how chatbot gender affects consumer responses in ecommerce interactions across various product types. Across two studies, the current research investigates the effects of chatbot-consumer gender congruence on product attitudes and buying intentions. The findings reveal gender-specific response patterns: While female consumers rely more on perceived trustworthiness derived from chatbot gender similarity when making purchase decisions, male consumers prioritize source credibility and product relevant expertise. The current research demonstrates that source similarity primarily influences product beliefs for utilitarian purchases but has a direct impact on purchase intentions for hedonic products. Notably, the current research also challenges assumptions about gender stereotyping, finding no significant interaction effects between chatbot gender and product types on consumer responses. This suggests that consumers may increasingly reject traditional gender biases in AI interactions. These findings offer important theoretical contributions to human-AI interaction research and practical implications for digital marketing practice.