An Enquiry into the Purchase Intention of AI – based Virtual Personal Voice Assistants in India

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyze the Indian consumers’ intention to purchase AI – based virtual personal assistants (VPAs). The various AI beliefs of the Indian consumers were initially captured using forty-four statements via the questionnaire survey method using snowball and convenience sampling techniques. Principal Component factor analysis followed by Varimax rotation was adopted to reduce these statements into nine factors namely: Trust in AI, Knowledge about AI, Personalization Preference, Current usage of AI, Awareness of AI, Positive outlook on Current AI Performance, Future Dangers of AI, Negative outlook on Current AI Performance and Desired Applications of AI. The survey which was conducted across India resulted in a sample size of 637 respondents who did not own a VPA and had either an intention/no intention to purchase a VPA. By employing Independent sample t-tests, the purchase intention was analyzed with respect to the nine reduced factors and the tests were repeated for various demographic profiles like gender, age, annual income and AI knowledge level for a better understanding. The results show that different factors significantly influence the purchase intention for different profiles. A complete understanding of the purchase intention of VPAs with respect to the various dimensions of the consumers’ AI beliefs and various demographic profiles is important for both businesses selling VPAs and also for the retail industry as voice shopping via VPAs is the future of e-commerce.