Factors Influencing the Use of AI Service Robots: Focusing on Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport

Airports are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, particularly service robots, to enhance operational efficiency, safety, and service quality.Despite these advantages, passengers' emotional responses to AI-based services vary considerably, highlighting the need to better understand the psychological mechanisms underlying AI service acceptance in aviation environments.This study examines the factors influencing passengers' emotional responses to AI service robots at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport by applying the Artificial Intelligence Device Use Acceptance (AIDUA) model.Using survey data collected from passengers with prior experience using AI service robots, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationships among social influence, hedonic motivation, anthropomorphism, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and emotion.The results indicate that social influence positively affects performance expectancy while negatively influencing effort expectancy, suggesting that social norms enhance perceived usefulness and reduce perceived usage barriers.Anthropomorphism was found to have a negative effect on performance expectancy, implying that excessive human-likeness may undermine functional trust in safety-sensitive airport settings.Performance expectancy positively influences passengers' emotions, whereas effort expectancy negatively affects emotional responses.In contrast, hedonic motivation does not significantly affect performance expectancy but reduces effort expectancy.These findings demonstrate that emotion plays a central role in evaluating AI-based aviation services.The study underscores the importance of managing passengers' emotional experiences alongside technical performance, offering theoretical and practical insights for the effective implementation of AI service robots in airport environments.