The supports provided by artificial intelligence to continuous usage intention of mobile banking: evidence from China

Abstract

Purpose Artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely used as a financial technology (fintech) in the mobile banking (M-banking) domain. However, in the literature, how AI affects users' perceptions of social support and the users' satisfaction and continuance intention (CI) remains unknown. To fill this gap, the two core characteristics of AI, perceived intelligence (PI) and perceived anthropomorphism (PA), are combined with social support theory (SST) (including informational support (IS) and emotional support (ES)) to develop a research model to investigate how PI and PA affect IS and ES, which in turn affect users’ M-banking satisfaction and CI. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a random probability sampling method to collect a total of 360 valid responses to verify the proposed model. Partial least squares (PLS) was employed for data analysis. Findings The results showed that PI and PA both have a significant positive impact on consumers' perception of social support (IS and ES). IS was a direct driver of satisfaction and CI. Surprisingly, although ES was positively associated with satisfaction, the study found that higher levels of ES will decrease CI. This study exposed how AI affects consumers’ satisfaction and CI through SST, and the role of AI in M-banking applications has been further confirmed. Originality/value This study expanded the SST to creatively integrate with AI features to reveal the impact of PI and PA on IS and ES, which in turn influence users' M-banking usage.