People Could Become ‘Robotized’ Through Interactions With AI, Study by University of Birmingham and Others Finds

A research team from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, Aarhus University in Denmark and Linnaeus University in Sweden said interactions with AI robots that display humanlike behavior could reinforce, reshape or destabilize consumers’ self-perception. The study was published in the open-access journal AI & Society.

For companies that use AI or robots in customer service, it is important to recognize that users may adapt their responses and attitudes to the other party over repeated interactions, potentially changing how they see themselves. The study says contact with robots that use adaptive learning, personalized conversation and empathetic responses could strengthen, rewrite or destabilize users’ self-perception.