Understanding the Design Elements Affecting User Acceptance of Intelligent Agents: Past, Present and Future

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Information Systems
• Artificial Intelligence

Background:

• Intelligent agents (IAs) are increasingly integrated into business and society.
• User interaction with IAs presents significant human-computer interface challenges.
• Existing knowledge on IA interaction is fragmented, hindering field advancement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and integrate empirical knowledge on user interaction with intelligent agents.
• To identify relationships between design elements and user acceptance of IAs.
• To propose a research agenda for designing IA user acceptance.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a systematic literature review of 107 Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction papers.
• Identified and analyzed 389 empirical relationships between design elements and IA user acceptance.
• Developed a research space model to map empirical research on IA design for acceptance.

Main Results:

• Synthesized a comprehensive knowledge base on user interaction with intelligent agents.
• Established 389 distinct relationships between IA design elements and user acceptance.
• Created a research space model to visualize the empirical landscape of IA acceptance research.

Conclusions:

• The study provides an integrated view of empirical knowledge on designing for IA user acceptance.
• A novel research agenda is presented, guiding future research and practice in IA design.
• This work bridges current knowledge gaps and outlines future pathways for intelligent agent development.