Does AI-Generated Review Summarization Affect Consumer Purchasing Behavior?— An Empirical Study Based on the Amazon Platform

Abstract

The product reviews on e-commerce platforms have become an important reference for consumers' purchase decisions. However, the sheer volume of reviews can lead to information overload, which may negatively affect consumer purchasing behavior. The AI-generated review summarization brings an opportunity to solve this dilemma. We collected 48,019 panel data of 3,781 products from the Amazon platform between February 2023 and February 2024, and employed a difference-in-differences model to investigate the impact mechanism of AI-generated review summarization on consumer purchasing behavior. The research found that AI-generated review summarization promotes consumer purchasing behavior. The number of product reviews has a U-shaped moderating effect, and the average product rating and rating dispersion both have positive moderating effects. Additionally, compared to experience products, search products amplify the impact of AI-generated review summarization on consumer purchasing behavior. The findings offer theoretical support for enhancing the design of AI-human interactions on e-commerce platforms.