How do interactive voice assistants build brands' loyalty?

Voice assistants have emerged as a new form of technology that can identify human speech and respond accordingly via synthesized voices and this family of technologies has helped people accomplish various requirements in their daily lives. However, despite the numerous benefits of AI-based assistants, consumers' concerns about their privacy have increased. Nevertheless, only a few studies focus on the brand loyalty of customers, which influences the intention of consumers to persist in using voice assistants. Furthermore, the impact of brand credibility on the overall perceived value receives little attention. Therefore, this study attempted to identify the mechanism through which the users of voice assistants might develop reuse intention and loyalty toward a specific service provider brand and analyze how brand credibility can influence the overall perceived value of voice assistants. The study drew on the uses & gratification theory, signaling theory, and prospect theory to develop the conceptual model and its underlying hypotheses. Using purposive sampling and an online survey, data were collected from 426 Chinese users of AliGenie, Alibaba's intelligent personal assistant. Data and the hypothesized model were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings from quantitative analysis identified the perceived privacy risk as the most significant factor and obstacle influencing consumers' overall perceived value toward the usage of voice assistants. Furthermore, findings indicate that brand credibility moderates the existing relationship between the perceived privacy risk and the overall perceived value, a high brand credibility results in a much lower association between the perceived privacy risk and overall perceived value. Furthermore, the findings discovered a significant and positive relationship between brand loyalty and individuals' continued usage of voice assistants.