“May I Help You?”: Exploring the Effect of Individuals’ Self-Efficacy on the Use of Conversational Agents

Conversational agents (CAs) increasingly permeate our lives and offer us assistance for a myriad of tasks. Despite promising measurable benefits, CA use remains below expectations. To complement prior technology-focused research, this study takes a user- centric perspective and explores an individual’s characteristics and dispositions as a factor influencing CA use. In particular, we investigate how individuals’ self-efficacy, i.e., their belief in their own skills and abilities, affects their decision to seek assistance from a CA. We present the research model and study design for a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, participants complete two tasks embedded in realistic scenarios including websites with integrated CAs – that they might use for assistance. Initial results confirm the influence of individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs on their decision to use CAs. By taking a human-centric perspective and observing actual behavior, we expect to contribute to CA research by exploring a factor likely to drive CA use.