Abstract
The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has made digital humans (DHs) important interactive subjects in e-service systems. However, recent studies have reported that customers rarely accept DHs in e-service as people used to think. Given that DHs function as sociotechnical systems (STS), considering relationship management between DHs and customers in e-services to address these issues is necessary. To address the above concerns, this study uses the utilitarian and hedonic framework to investigate the construction mechanism of customer commitment (on DHs) in e-services. After three waves of data collection, a total of 703 questionnaires were collected. Multilevel modeling (MEM) and the response surface method (RSM) were used to analyze the data. The results demonstrate that customer commitment is constructed by a mixture of utilitarian and hedonic factors, in which customer experience plays a mediating role in e-service. However, DHs failed to construct continuance commitment in this study. This study not only provides corresponding theoretical contributions to the study of DHs, customer commitments, and human–machine relationships (HRMs) in e-services but also provides practical insights into the construction of commercial scenarios such as AI customer service and intelligent interaction systems.
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This work was supported by the Shanghai Pujiang Program under Grant 24PJC037.
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All research procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Dali University (Approval No. HSSECDLU-20240501) on May 1, 2024. The research was conducted in line with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.
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Consent was provided through the cover letter attached to the questionnaire. All participants were fully understanding the informed consent form. This process was conducted between June and July 2024. All authors confirm that informed consent was obtained from every participant involved in the study. Participants voluntarily agreed to take part in the research, fully informed that their anonymity would be ensured, that their data would be used solely for research purposes, and that there were no risks associated with their participation. Data were recorded and numbered in Arabic numerals, which did not include participants’ names.
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Fang, L.B., Cheng, T. & Yang, H. Does superficial attraction hinders sustainable relationships with digital humans? Understanding customer commitment on digital humans in e-services from the utilitarian and hedonic perspectives. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-07462-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-07462-y
