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<p>Artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants (VAs) in consultative stationary retail promise improved decision support for customers and reduced labor costs for retailers, but adoption remains low and uneven. This study explores how perceived privacy risks, autonomy needs, and tech-competence affect VA acceptance in brick-and-mortar retail. Our model posits that privacy concerns depend on specific social context, while social comfort during public VA interaction depends on perceived technical competence. We expand the Technology Acceptance Model by incorporating self-determination (Deci and Ryan <CitationRef CitationID="CR19">2000</CitationRef>; Ryan and Deci <CitationRef CitationID="CR70">2020</CitationRef>) and contextual integrity (Nissenbaum <CitationRef CitationID="CR58">2004</CitationRef>) theories. To enhance external validity, we randomly sampled walk-in customers at a high-street experimental retail store in Germany, measuring tech-competence through observed behavior. The desire for autonomy correlates negatively with perceived usefulness across groups. This effect is stronger among tech-cautious shoppers, who also show a directional positive pattern between autonomy and perceived ease of use that differs across groups. For tech-cautious users, behavioral intention and actual use are cross-sectionally associated, and actual use is further associated with lower privacy concerns and weaker autonomy desires; privacy concerns relate negatively only to social privacy, not to information privacy. This research improves understanding of VA adoption in retail and provides actionable insights for practitioners.</p>

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How tech-cautious shoppers react to in-store virtual assistants: a multigroup perspective on privacy and autonomy

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月30日

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  • Benjamin Leichtle,
  • Florian Kainz,
  • Katharina Schöttl,
  • Amadeus Werner,
  • Franz-Michael Binninger,
  • Christian Werner

摘要

Artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants (VAs) in consultative stationary retail promise improved decision support for customers and reduced labor costs for retailers, but adoption remains low and uneven. This study explores how perceived privacy risks, autonomy needs, and tech-competence affect VA acceptance in brick-and-mortar retail. Our model posits that privacy concerns depend on specific social context, while social comfort during public VA interaction depends on perceived technical competence. We expand the Technology Acceptance Model by incorporating self-determination (Deci and Ryan 2000; Ryan and Deci 2020) and contextual integrity (Nissenbaum 2004) theories. To enhance external validity, we randomly sampled walk-in customers at a high-street experimental retail store in Germany, measuring tech-competence through observed behavior. The desire for autonomy correlates negatively with perceived usefulness across groups. This effect is stronger among tech-cautious shoppers, who also show a directional positive pattern between autonomy and perceived ease of use that differs across groups. For tech-cautious users, behavioral intention and actual use are cross-sectionally associated, and actual use is further associated with lower privacy concerns and weaker autonomy desires; privacy concerns relate negatively only to social privacy, not to information privacy. This research improves understanding of VA adoption in retail and provides actionable insights for practitioners.