Purpose
As artificial intelligence voice agents (AIVA) have been widely adopted in services, diverse forms of their voices, which are the main interface with users, have been experimented. The purpose of this study is to examine how users evaluate vocal characteristics (gender, voice pitch, and voice pace) of AIVA, depending on prior research on human voice attractiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed an experimental survey which 516 participated in. Each participant was randomly assigned into one of eight situations (e.g., male – higher pitch – faster pace) and listened a AIVA voice sample, which introduce weather information. Next, a participant answered three consequence factors (attractiveness, trust, and anthropomorphism).
Findings
The results reveal that female voices of AIVA were perceived as more attractive and trustworthy than male voices. As far as voice pitch goes, while lower-pitch voices were preferred in female voices, higher-pitch voices were preferred in male voices. Finally, faster voices of AIVA were more attractive than slower voices.