Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) and consumer products: an empirical assessment of the effects of explanations versus benefits in product information

Purpose This study aims to examine one crucial assumption in the explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) literature, namely, that providing information with explanations of how an AI-based product works enhances understandability and trust. The study also extends the view of explanations in the XAI literature by examining the effects of another type of product information, product benefits and by including perceived product performance as a downstream variable. Design/methodology/approach A between-subjects experiment (n = 480) was used to manipulate pre-purchase information about an AI-based product in terms of both explanations about how the product works (absent vs present) and product benefits (absent vs present). Understandability, trust and perceived product performance were the measured response variables. Findings Explanations in the XAI sense boost understandability and trust, but they do more than that: such explanations also have a positive impact on perceived product performance (both directly and indirectly via trust). Information about product benefits produced a similar pattern of effects on understandability, trust and perceived product performance. Research limitations/implications One specific AI-based product was used as a stimulus in the present study (an add-on option for cars to provide safety for car drivers). It should be seen as a sample from a population of products to be used in situations in which there can be severe consequences for the user. AI, however, is also used for products with a lower potential for severe consequences, and it is possible that explanations of how they work would produce other reactions than those that were identified in the present study. Practical implications The results imply that marketers of AI-based products should provide consumers with explanations of how the product works and product benefit information. Originality/value This study offers novel extensions in relation to much existing research on XAI by examining a consumer setting, information about product benefits, perceived product performance as an overall assessment of the product subject to information and a pre-purchase situation.