Why do people avoid and postpone the use of voice assistants for transactional purposes? A perspective from decision avoidance theory

Consumers increasingly adopt artificial intelligence (AI) enabled voice assistants (VAs) for transactional and non-transactional uses due to these devices’ inherent affordances, such as their ease of use and convenience. Despite the widespread adoption of VAs in recent times, consumers continue to avoid using VAs for transactional purposes. Currently, we have a limited understanding of the various antecedents and consequences of consumer decision avoidance in the context of VAs. This study aims to bridge this gap by adopting the decision avoidance theory as a theoretical lens and a convergent mixed-methods approach to identify the antecedents (i.e. cognitive biases and nudging) and consequences (i.e. rejection of VAs for transactional purposes and intention to adopt VAs for transactional purposes) of consumer decision avoidance (i.e. consumer inertia and procrastination). The study findings suggest a positive association of cognitive biases with consumer inertia, procrastination and rejection. While nudging is positively associated with procrastination and intentions, it shares a negative association with rejection. Consumer inertia is positively associated with rejection and negatively associated with intentions. Meanwhile, procrastination shares a positive association with intention and a negative association with rejection. Technology comfort has a significant moderating (negative) influence on the association between cognitive biases and intentions.