Publication Type

Conference Proceeding Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

7-2023

Abstract

This study examined business communication practices with chatbots among various Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) stakeholders in Singapore, including business owners/employees, customers, and developers. Through qualitative interviews and chatbot transcript analysis, we investigated two research questions: (1) How do the expectations of SME stakeholders compare to the conversational design of SME chatbots? and (2) What are the business reasons for SMEs to add human-like features to their chatbots? Our findings revealed that functionality is more crucial than anthropomorphic characteristics, such as personality and name. Stakeholders preferred chatbots that explicitly identified themselves as machines to set appropriate expectations. Customers prioritized efficiency, favoring fixed responses over free text input. Future research should consider the evolving expectations of consumers, business owners, and developers as chatbot technology advances and becomes more widely adopted.

Keywords

business communication, chatbots, interview, qualitative, Small and Medium Enterprise, SME, transcript logs

Discipline

Business and Corporate Communications | Databases and Information Systems | Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing

Research Areas

Corporate Communication

Publication

CUI '23: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, Eindhoven, July 19-21

First Page

1

Last Page

5

ISBN

9798400700149

Identifier

10.1145/3571884.3604315

Publisher

ACM

City or Country

New York

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