Chatbot-aided product purchases among Generation Z: the role of personality traits

The rapid integration of machine learning has positioned product recommendation chatbots as essential tools in the e-commerce landscape, shaping how consumers engage and make purchasing decisions. Generation Z, as a tech-savvy and AI-adept demographic, plays a central role in this transformation. While prior studies have examined chatbot-consumer interactions, limited research has explored how both personality traits and information source characteristics jointly influence purchase intentions.

This study develops an integrative framework to assess how the Big Five personality traits-extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness-and key chatbot features-expertise, interactivity, trustworthiness, and customization-affect Generation Z's willingness to purchase chatbot-recommended products. The moderating role of personal innovativeness is also examined. Data were collected from 480 Generation Z chatbot users in China through an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), artificial neural networks (ANN), and necessary condition analysis (NCA).

Results indicate that extraversion, agreeableness, openness, expertise, interactivity, and customization significantly influence purchase intention. Moreover, personal innovativeness positively moderates the effect of extraversion on purchase intention.

These findings contribute to the literature by bridging personality psychology and human-AI interaction and offer practical insights for enhancing chatbot effectiveness in e-commerce.