| Keywords [eng] |
Artificial intelligence, chatbots, AI-powered chatbots, customer experience, customer loyalty, telecommunication, Technology Acceptance Model, TAM, SERVQUAL, service quality. |
| Abstract [eng] |
This paper explores the use of AI-powered chatbots in improving customer experience and loyalty within the communication industry in the context of incorporating the SERVQUAL and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) frameworks. Although the use of AI chatbots in the customer care field has become a common practice, there is little empirical evidence on whether they have any effect on the customer loyalty in the telecommunication sector. This study fills this gap by examining the correlations of service quality and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, intention to use, customer satisfaction, customer experience, and customer loyalty. The quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used, which gathered information about 171 respondents in various countries that recently used telecommunications AI chatbots. Excel and JASP statistical package were used to analyze data with application of descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression to test the proposed hypotheses. All four hypotheses were highly significant and their results were supported. Service quality was a key factor in contributing to the perceived usefulness as well as the perceived ease of use. All these constructs described a significant share of the intention to use. Positive intentions to use had a positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer experience while customer experience strongly influence customer loyalty. The constructs were all very reliable, and the model explained between 65.5% to 73.5% of variance in the dependent variables. The results confirm that the presence of high-quality AI-powered chatbots is important in improving customer perceptions, satisfaction, experience, and loyalty in telecommunications. The study will serve the theoretical framework with its confirmation of integrated TAM-SERVQUAL model in chatbots and give practical suggestions to telecommunications firms wishing to gain their competitive advantage through AI-based customer support excellence. |
