When Do Customers Perceive Artificial Intelligence as Fair? An Assessment of AI-based B2C E-Commerce

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) enables new opportunities for business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce services, but it can also lead to customer dissatisfaction if customers perceive the implemented service not to be fair. While we have a broad understanding of the concept of fair AI, a concrete assessment of fair AI from a customer-centric perspective is lacking. Based on systemic service fairness, we conducted 20 in-depth semi-structured customer interviews in the context of B2C e-commerce services. We identified 19 AI fairness rules along four interrelated fairness dimensions: procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational. By providing a comprehensive set of AI fairness rules, our research contributes to the information systems (IS) literature on fair AI, service design, and human-computer interaction. Practitioners can leverage these rules for the development and configuration of AI-based B2C e-commerce services.