Impact of Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Customer Interaction on Consumer Buying Intention: Evidence from Online Beauty and Personal Care Products in India

The purpose of this study is to examine how artificial intelligence–enabled customer interaction influences customer patronage towards e-commerce applications dealing with online beauty and personal care products in India. The study also explores the mediating effect of decision convenience and perceived control. The increasing adoption of AI features in online shopping applications, such as chatbots, personalized recommendations, automated customer support, and more, has improved consumers' online purchasing experience. However, empirical evidence explaining the mechanisms through which AI-enabled interactions affect consumer patronage, particularly in emerging economies like India, is underexplored. A structured, self administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 477 Indian consumers with prior experience with AI-enabled online beauty and personal care platforms. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to assess both the measurement and structural models. This study extends the AI and consumer behaviour literature by empirically validating the roles of decision convenience and perceived control as explanatory mechanisms linking AI enabled customer interaction to customer patronage of AI-featured e-Commerce applications. The results show that AI enabled customer interaction significantly enhances customers’ decision convenience and moderately influences their perceived control over the application. Decision convenience has a strong positive effect on customer patronage and partially mediates the relationship between AI-enabled interaction and patronage. Perceived control, although positively related to patronage, does not demonstrate a significant mediating effect.