AI-Assisted Shopping on Voice Assistants: The Efficiency-Autonomy Consumer Decision Trade-Off
Source: Journal of Interactive Marketing (Mari, Mandelli, Algesheimer) · 2026-03-04 · publisher abstract only
AI-based voice assistants (VAs), such as Amazon Alexa, are emerging as powerful mediators of AI-assisted shopping processes, yet their influence on consumer decision autonomy remains underexplored. To examine whether and how consumers delegate decisions to AI-powered assistants within an efficiency–autonomy trade-off, this study employed a single-session online experiment (n = 484) using a custom Alexa shopping app. To account for the role of the first recommended option, the brand (private label vs. national) and price (cheap vs. premium) were varied. Contrary to other shopping environments, when purchasing low-involvement and utilitarian products through VA-assisted shopping, evaluating fewer alternatives (indicative of greater efficiency) is associated with higher decision satisfaction and a greater intention to cede decision autonomy to the VA. The findings reveal that the number of alternatives evaluated is negatively associated with consumers’ intentions to delegate tasks to the VA and trust its product recommendations, both directly and indirectly, through decision satisfaction. Notably, the effect of streamlined choice persists across brand types and price levels. The results highlight consumers’ willingness to trade autonomy for efficiency in AI-assisted voice shopping, which has strategic implications for national brands operating in voice commerce environments.
Lines of inquiry this paper opens 24
Research framings built by reading the notes related to this paper — the questions it feeds into.
Why do consumers overtrust AI preference agents despite limited understanding?- Does stated trust in surveys predict actual delegated purchasing behavior?
- When do consumers overtrust AI agents built to represent their own preferences?
- Why do safeguards matter more than AI capability for consumer adoption?
- Do consumers who trust AI agents understand their actual limitations?
- What percentage of shoppers constitute the super-truster segment exactly?
- What safeguards beyond sign-off do consumers want from autonomous shopping agents?
- Does stated trust in brands predict actual delegation of agentic commerce?
- Why do consumers resist letting AI control payment authority directly?
- Can platforms use lower AI fidelity to nudge consumers toward adoption?
- Why might users over-trust preference agents despite rational adoption hesitation?
- Do low-involvement purchases differ from complex decisions in delegating to AI?
- Does trust or benefit perception predict AI adoption across different domains?
- What operationalizes decision satisfaction when consumers use voice assistants?
- Do scarcity conditions change which consumers prefer autonomous assistants?
- Why has marketing research neglected prompting behavior and relational dynamics with AI?
- Why do weekly AI users prefer brand-built agents over AI platforms?
- How does shopping task delegation differ from routine administrative delegation?
- What conflicts exist between vendor incentives and objective consumer research findings?
- Does visible transaction history reduce or increase consumer anxiety about AI purchases?
- Does preference articulation cost explain caution about full purchase delegation?
- Can hybrid shopping journeys combine manual inspection with agentic refinement?
- Does the efficiency-autonomy trade-off apply beyond utilitarian shopping tasks?