Exploring the Influential Factors of Consumers’ Willingness Toward Using COVID-19 Related Chatbots: An Empirical Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Consumers’ willingness to use health chatbots can eventually determine if the adoption of health chatbots will succeed in delivering healthcare services for combating COVID-19. However, little research to date has empirically explored influential factors of consumer willingness toward using these novel technologies, and the effect of individual differences in predicting this willingness. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore (a) the influential factors of consumers’ willingness to use health chatbots related to COVID-19, (b) the effect of individual differences in predicting willingness, and (c) the likelihood of using health chatbots in the near future as well as the challenges/barriers that could hinder peoples’ motivations. METHODS An online survey was conducted which comprised of two sections. Section one measured participants’ willingness by evaluating the following six factors: performance efficacy, intrinsic motivation, anthropomorphism, social influence, facilitating conditions, and emotions. Section two included questions on demographics, the likelihood of using health chatbots in the future, and concerns that could impede such motivation. RESULTS A total of 166 individuals provided complete responses. Although (n=67, 40%) were aware of health chatbots and only (n=40, 24%) had used them before, about (n=140, 84%) wanted to use health chatbots in the future. The strongest predictors of willingness to use health chatbots came from the intrinsic motivation factor whereas the next strongest predictors came from the performance efficacy factor. Nearly (n=66, 39.5%) of participants perceived health chatbots to have human-like features such as consciousness and free will, but no emotions. About (n=64, 38%) were uncertain about the ease of using health chatbots and nearly (n=73, 44%) subjects would change their decisions to accept or reject using these technologies based on the social influence of people they know. CONCLUSIONS This study contributes toward theoretically understanding factors influencing peoples’ willingness to use COVID-19-related health chatbots. The findings also show that the perception of chatbots’ benefits outweigh the challenges. Intervention developers and researchers need to employ theory-based and user-centred approaches to determine consumers’ values and interaction requirements to achieve the best utilisation of health chatbots for delivering healthcare services during pandemics.