What kind of Chatbot do Millennials prefer to interact with? The role of Communication Style and Avatar in predicting Millennials' Intention to use Chatbots

Being a relatively new digital platform, perfectly meshing with the way in which young consumers socially interact with the world, chatbots’ perceptions knowledge turns out to be a key factor to address business efforts in enhancing young customers experience with companies’ technologies. This study applies a between-participants factorial design to explore the extent to which the conversational style (social-oriented vs task-oriented) and the visual cue (avatar presence vs avatar absence), influence perceived social presence of the interaction with the chatbot and how this perception, in turn, influences the Millennials’ intention to adopt them. To conduct the study, a survey method was employed, and data were collected from a snowball sample of 193 Millennials. Findings from the study reveal that a social-oriented communication style increases users’ perception of social presence, which in turn predicts the intention to use it via perceived enjoyment and attitude toward the chatbot.