The Secret Ingredient for Building Trust in AI

When creating AI products, a fundamental question arises: how do we get users to truly trust these advanced technologies?

Surprisingly, a recent research study reveals that while performance is crucial, cultivating emotional connections serves as the secret sauce for sustaining user engagement over time.

The study analyzed how employees trusted an AI chatbot introduced in their workplace. It showed how they formed both cognitive and emotional bonds with the technology:

Cognitive Trust as the foundational layer

The study found users formed cognitive trust with the chatbot based on rationally evaluating specific attributes:

• Its reliability in executing tasks accurately and consistently

• The transparency into its operations and information sources

• Its competence in delivering helpful information to users

However, this knowledge-based trust tended to be limited when users only developed cognitive trust in the AI chatbot, they tended to limit its use to a single, narrow purpose that they knew it could reliably perform well.

For example

1. Users who only had cognitive trust used the chatbot for the same type of simple information retrieval task, like looking up HR records.

2. They did not try expanding use of the chatbot to new contexts or questions.

3. Their cognitive trust was contingent on it performing that one function well.

The Critical Role of Emotional Trust

In contrast, emotional trust emerged from something else:

1. Anthromorphic design

Anthropomorphic design touches like names, avatars, and messaging that created rapport and affinity.

“Employees experienced emotions towards the AI chatbot, stemming from their feelings of closeness to the chatbot. Indeed, employees expressed affection towards its icon and animation” 

“The tangibility of the embodiment of the AI chatbot, i.e. the visual representation of the AI chatbot, its name and its identity as a gender-neutral ‘funny creature’, allowed users to connect with the AI chatbot and build a personal bond with it.”

2. Sense of care

A sense of care and partnership between user and machine

“They felt that interacting with the AI chatbot gave them the feeling that someone was listening to them and that this resembled human–human communication.”

3. Human-like connection

Feeling an intuitive, human-like connection with the technology:

“The personal messages that accompany the AI chatbot consistently remind the user that ‘Brainy is learning’ and that employees could ‘teach the bot’ if they choose to."

This emotional glue caused users to persistently experiment with the chatbot across new contexts. Despite imperfections, emotional investment paid dividends in forgiveness and patience, generating data to enhance its learning.

The Synergy Between Cognitive and Emotional Trust

The study revealed cognitive and emotional factors mutually reinforce one another to build holistic user trust.

Cognitive trust in capabilities provides the bedrock baseline functionality people expect from AI. But emotional trust sustains engagement beyond early limitations, enabling rapid iteration.

Without this emotional foundation, people abandon tools at the first fault. But with care invested, they grow more tolerant of missteps, granting time for progress.

This insight has profound implications for conversational AI design. It cautions solely chasing metrics like accuracy. While essential, only focusing on cognitive optimization risks to reduce user experience and user adoption and then leads to user churn all too soon.  Blending emotional design makes the experience more fluid, forgiving, and human.

Cognitive Trust + Emotional Trust = Comprehensive Trust

​​Constructing comprehensive trust requires harmonizing logical and emotional elements. 

Key principles include:

• Establish a functional baseline of reliability, transparency, and competence that users can logically trust. (Supported by findings on cognitive trust factors).

• Infuse emotional design - personalities, dialogue, rapport - to build intuitive bonds. (As evidenced by emotional trust driven by anthropomorphism and reciprocity).

• Allow space for imperfections while enhancing capabilities over time. (Emotional trust sustained engagement despite limitations, enabling improvement).

• Cultivate a partnership mindset between the user and the AI. (Findings showed a sense of cooperation and teamwork).

Bridging the logical and emotional, we can design technology that aligns with both the head and the heart, cultivating resilient user trust.

Thanks for reading!

Link to the study:

2023, Gkinko, L., Elbanna, A. “Designing trust: The formation of employees’ trust in conversational AI in the digital workplace” - Link to ScieneDirect