Theory
The studies related to customer adoption of AI used many theoretical underpinnings. Since the review’s topic is interdisciplinary, the theories applied are from several disciplines: technology acceptance, Psychology, Consumer Behaviour, health behaviour, decision-making, and sociology.
Consumer decision-making regarding the acceptance of new technology or the continuation usage of the technology is explained mainly by various established theories like TRA, TPB, TAM, UTAUT, S-O-R theory, etc. (Dwivedi et al., 2019; Huarng et al., 2022; Mishra et al., 2022; Ye et al., 2019). Technology acceptance theories have evolved over a period of time to provide a better explanation of the acceptance phenomenon. The latest development in the theoretical area of customer acceptance of AI-specific solutions is AIDUA (Gursoy et al., 2019). The literature review identified that even after the development of the AI-specific technology acceptance framework AIDUA, researchers are still relying largely on previous theories. We are not suggesting that previous theories have become obsolete because even AIDUA is based on the previous theories with some significant modifications. Since AIDUA was specifically developed for the customer adoption of AI, researchers may apply the AIDUA framework in future research. Even when the studies are focused on customer acceptance of AI in healthcare, theories related to human health behaviour have been used in a very limited number of studies. The health belief model has been used in only one study among the selected 126 articles for this review. Researchers should utilize health behaviour models and other health-related theories for their research in this area. Attribution theory also has scope to be included in future studies on customer acceptance of AI in healthcare. Attribution Theory refers to the causal explanation of a situation through which responsibility for failure or success is ascribed to an agent. Attributing success to themselves and attributing failure to others is a standard attribution error or bias (Buss, 1978). Another influential theory that can be utilized to establish the relationship between independent variables and behavioural intention is Agency Theory.
Methods
Researchers applied various methodologies to study consumer acceptance of AI in healthcare. Qualitative studies like one-to-one interviews, focus group interviews, and case studies were utilized as study designs in various papers. In a few studies, basic descriptive statistics were performed through percentage analysis and frequency analysis. Several studies have applied thematic analysis to determine factors affecting customer adoption of AI in healthcare. Various researchers have applied experimental design to identify the perception of patients and the public regarding AI applications in different healthcare domains. Some studies like (Muaddi et al. (2022), Nurek & Kostopoulou 2023; Ou et al. (2022), and Tran et al. (2019) applied vignette-based experiments.
One significant observation regarding the experimental design is related to the geographical contexts where the experimental study has been performed. Most of the experimental studies have been done in North America and Europe. Some of the experiments have been done in Asian countries like China and Japan. However, in other developing regions like South East Asian countries and the Indian subcontinent, there are few experimental studies in the field concerned.
Some of the researchers have applied survey methods to study the relationships. Regression Analysis and SEM are the most prevalent methods for study design and data analysis. Only some studies have been done using big data analytics tools like content analysis and text analysis. Researchers are recommended to do more text and sentiment analysis-based studies since the vast amount of unstructured user data is generated on social media, company websites, and other internet platforms.
Some studies have used a mixed-method approach to determine customers’ behavioural intentions in AI in healthcare. The mixed method approach provides more credibility to the predictors when explaining a particular phenomenon. Future researchers are requested to apply a mixed-method approach in determining the consumer adoption of AI in healthcare.
Context
Regarding geographical contexts, the most selected studies have been done in countries like the USA, the UK, and Australia. Some studies were conducted in China, Japan, India, and other Asian countries. However, more studies are needed on continents like Africa and South America. Even in Asia, a greater number of studies are conducted in China, Japan, and South Korea. Studies from Indian subcontinents, South East Asia, and Gulf Countries are fewer.
Table 7 shows the population distribution of all the continents in 2020. Around 18% of the global population resides in Europe and North America, but the most significant number of studies have been done there only. AI has a promising potential for improving healthcare systems in low-income developing countries from Asia, Africa, and South America. For the success of AI implementation in healthcare, patients and the public, adoption of AI is essential. Academic journals prefer to publish articles that are global in context so that readers from across the world will be interested in those journals. However, in the context of public adoption of AI, it is crucial to get the views of all kinds of people across the world.
In Asia, around 60% of the world's population resides. However, a significant number of studies are available in studies selected for the review. However, there is a caveat in the data. Most studies are done in China, Japan, and South Korea. Around 40% of the world’s population lives in Asian countries other than China, Japan, and South Korea. India is the most populous country in the world at this point in time. Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are 3rd, 4th, and 5th, respectively. Researchers are requested to include African, South American, and Asian populations in their study. Within the Asian countries, researchers are asked to include respondents from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh in their research
Future research related to constructs is being presented in Fig. 3 (Antecedents, Service Encounters, and Outcomes (A-S-O) framework). The Proposed A-S-O framework is based on the current extensive systematic literature review of 126 articles, previous conceptual frameworks of customer adoption of AI and several theories related to technology adoption, consumer behaviour, health behaviour, consumer decision making, etc.
The decision-making of humans related to the adoption and usage continuation of new technology has been explained through various theories starting from TRA, S-O-R, TPB, TAM, and UTAUT. A few frameworks are available for determining consumers' behavioural intentions in the context of customer acceptance of AI. Gursoy et al. (2019) have conceptualized and empirically tested the AIDUA framework in the context of service robots. AIDUA is already explained in the previous section, so to avoid redundancy, another conceptual framework of AI acceptance in service encounters by Ostrom et al. (2019) will be briefly described below.
Ostrom et al. (2019) have presented an Antecedent- Customer Response- Consequences framework for explaining customer acceptance of AI in service encounters. They have conceptualized several factors, like privacy concerns, role clarity, individual characteristics, etc., as antecedent factors. Approval, adoption, and usage are the customer response factors. Increased well-being and time savings are a few of the consequences. Along with the framework, they have classified the service encounters into three types. AI-supported encounters in which AI works behind the scenes, such as physicians using IBM Watson to help with patient diagnosis. AI Augmented encounters in which AI is visibly assisting the service providers, such as robot-assisted surgery. AI Performed encounters in which AI performed the task independently, such as chatbots.
The proposed ASO framework is developed to determine the customer or patient adoption of AI in healthcare. The theoretical underpinning of the proposed framework includes the S-O-R, UTAUT, TAM, TPB, and AIDUA. The framework is structured on the classical S-O-R theory. The antecedent part is basically the stimulus factors; emotion and trust are the organism factors, and the outcome variables are the response factors. Antecedents are categorized into four factors: Perceived benefits, Perceived costs, Psychological Factors, and Psychosocial Factors. Service Encounters are classified into three types, according to Ostrom et al. (2019), namely AI supported, AI augmented, and AI performed. Outcomes are provided with different terms of adoption, such as acceptance, usage, and continuance of use, so future researchers will have the opportunity to work on them.
Perceived Benefits and Perceived Costs
Constructs categorized as perceived benefits and perceived costs are based on social exchange theory and privacy calculus theory. Social exchange theory states that people examine their social exchanges based on perceived costs and perceived benefits (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). As per privacy calculus theory, users assume privacy concerns in economic terms; people perform a subjective cost-benefit analysis before providing personal information as a cost and expect improved services as benefits (Gotsch & Schögel, 2023; Hoffmann et al. 2016;).
Constructs kept under the category of perceived benefits are Performance expectancy, Health Improvement Expectancy, Quality and Accuracy, and Transparency. The definition and explanation of each construct are already there in the previous section of the paper. But some descriptions, like the reason for selecting some of the constructs, are dropping. The others will be provided below.
Performance Expectancy is taken, and the perceived usefulness is dropped because the perceived usefulness is there among the root constructs of Performance expectancy. Gursoy et al. (2019) have stated through the AIDUA model that the construct performance expectancy is more suitable for determining customer acceptance of AI. Hayat et al. (2022) identified a healthcare behaviour-related construct, so the proposed model added a construct of Health Improvement expectancy to better explain customer acceptance of AI. Future researchers are encouraged to utilize Performance expectancy and Health improvement Expectancy to study customer adoption of AI in healthcare.
Effort Expectancy, Privacy Concern, and Perceived Risk are the constructs categorized under Perceived costs. Effort Expectancy is part of the previous technology acceptance models. Even in the articles selected for the current review, effort expectancy has been used as one of the constructs. Several studies have considered privacy concerns as one of the constructs in their studies of determining customer adoption of AI in healthcare. Gursoy et al. (2019) kept privacy concerns as one of the constructs in their conceptual framework. Hence, privacy concerns are also kept in the current model.
Psychological Factors
Emotional Intelligence, Intrinsic Motivation, Health Consciousness, Hedonic Motivation, and Role Clarity of customers are the constructs there under the category of psychological factors. Health consciousness is the only health behaviour-specific construct available in this category. As stated earlier, these constructs are defined and explained in the earlier section of the current paper. The construct Role and clarity of Customers should have been described earlier. Customer role clarity is the subjective and objective understanding of an individual has role while availing of AI-based service. The clarity of the task performed by AI and the service receiver is essential for a consumer while interacting with intelligent AI solutions. Despite being of critical importance, the role clarity of customers’ needs to be sufficiently explored in the literature, and upcoming researchers are requested to consider including the role clarity of customers in their model of studies.
Psychosocial Factors
Psychosocial factors include Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, Anthropomorphism, Human Element of Care, and Cultural Differences. Social Influence and Facilitating Conditions are utilized in technology acceptance research in several areas. Anthropomorphism is an AI-specific construct, and the Human Element of Care is a healthcare-specific construct. The aspect of the human element of care is essential in healthcare AI adoption studies as the design and behaviour of the robots do affect the customer perception towards them (Liu, Tetteroo, and Markopoulos 2022). However, very few articles utilized this construct in this area, and future researchers should consider adding the construct of the human element of care in their scope of study. Future researchers may include four dimensions of culture (Power distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism-Collectivism, Masculinity-Femininity) given by Hofstede (1980) for their study of the determination of behavioural intentions in AI in healthcare.
Types of Service Encounters
In general, AI service encounters with customers are of three types: AI supported, AI augmented, and AI performed (Ostrom et al., 2019). AI is in a supporting role in which AI will be in the background, like IBM Watson used by the clinicians; AI is in the augmenting role if the AI is visibly helping a clinician, like in the case of Robot-assisted-surgery and AI is in a performing role if a robot is performing surgery or chatbots are providing therapy in the case of mental health care. In all three scenarios, the perception of patients or the public regarding service encounters will differ. In the area of healthcare AI, the role played by AI will have a significant impact on customer adoption. Future researchers should incorporate the different roles played while establishing relationships between factors affecting customer acceptance of AI and outcome variables like adoption and usage intentions.
Mediators
Trust and Emotions are kept as possible mediator constructs in the current model. Both constructs are defined and explained earlier in the review. Several studies have used trust as a mediator variable in determining customer technology adoption. Balakrishnan and Dwivedi (2020) determined that technology continuation intention is achieved through user trust as a mediating variable. Kim et al. (2021) have explained the relationship between the preciseness of information and customer response through the mediating role of trust. Arfi et al. (2021) identified trust as one factor affecting customers' adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare. Gursoy et al. (2019) have proposed the AIDUA model using the Lazarus cognition-motivation-emotion framework. Many studies have utilized emotion as a mediator while determining customer acceptance of AI. Hence, the construct of emotion has been kept as a mediator in the context of customer adoption of AI in healthcare.
Probable Moderators
Individual characteristics like personality, technology anxiety, and self-efficacy can be used as moderators since several studies related to technology acceptance have used these constructs as moderators. In the formation of UTAUT, demographic variables were used as moderators in the context of customer acceptance of AI in healthcare. Also, demographic variables can be used as moderators since people from different demographic profiles will have different levels of expectations from healthcare AI solutions.
Outcomes
Outcome constructs are adoption, usage intention, the continuation of usage intention, and rejection. The first three constructs are synonyms since the conceptual model has been developed to provide direction for future research, and the opportunity to explore different terms is offered to future researchers.
Future researchers are recommended to empirically test the proposed ASO framework in the area of AI in healthcare.