The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Personal Assistants in E-Commerce
Chapter from the book:
Yolcu,
T.
(ed.)
2024.
Electronic Commerce and Digitalisation.
Synopsis
With the increasing globalization, it is inevitable for companies to move towards electronic commerce. In e-commerce, one of the most important ways to create customer satisfaction and loyalty is to realize the customer experience. With the advancement of technology, companies are realizing this experience with artificial intelligence-based personal assistants. These technologies offer personalized recommendations by analyzing user behavior, speed up ordering and payment processes, streamline customer service, and facilitate the shopping experience of disabled or disadvantaged individuals with accessibility solutions. While personal assistants support loyalty programs that increase consumer engagement, they also provide cost benefits and competitive advantages for businesses. However, with the proliferation of these technologies, data security and ethical responsibilities have become more critical. There is a need to ensure transparency, adhere to ethical rules, and develop robust algorithms for the security and privacy of user data. It is also predicted that in the future, personal assistants will become more interactive and autonomous in virtual environments such as the metaverse. The aim of this chapter is to examine in detail the use and impact of AI-powered personal assistants in the e-commerce sector. In particular, it will show how these technologies are transforming the customer experience, the benefits they provide to businesses, and their impact on users. In addition, the discussion of current examples of AI-powered personal assistants and the discussion of the current position and future perspectives of this field will contribute to the literature in this area.