Tailoring Your AI Friend

Will people like their companion chatbot and enjoy the interaction more if given the choice to customize it? If so, why? We investigated these questions with an experiment in which participants in the customization group (N = 85) were given the options to choose the name, gender, and personality of a text-based companion chatbot while those in the control condition (N = 82) randomly received chatbots matched with the customization choices made by participants in the experimental group (a yoked control design). Data showed that providing customization had positive indirect effects on user perception of the chatbot, enjoyment of the interaction, and future use intentions via perceived customization, sense of control, sense of identity, homophily, and expectation violation. In addition, users’ perceived levels of customization contributed positively to user perceptions of homophily and identity, with these relationships being moderated by individual differences in perceptions of machines and technology use respectively.