Evaluating trust levels of virtual assistants utilizing different communication channels

Abstract

This thesis compares three channels of communication for virtual assistants; text, voice, and avatar, in terms of trust elicited from users. Participants played through a series of three escape rooms alongside the virtual assistant before rating their opinions on an array of attributes, revealing that the channel does not impact a user’s trust in virtual assistants when all else is equal. Significant differences were found in areas of time spent, difficulty, and usefulness of the assistant for participants with and without digital escape room experience, and a strong correlation was found between trust and usefulness of virtual assistants when they are text only.