Artificial Intelligence Driven Customer Engagement: A Study of Indian E-Commerce Consumers

This study examines how AI-powered service experiences influence customer satisfaction and customer engagement in the B2C e-commerce context in India. Drawing on affordance theory and service dominant logic the study conceptualizes AI as a commercial service and investigates the mechanisms through which AI service experience contributes to customer engagement. Primary data were collected from Gen-Z and Millennial customers in India who had interacted with AI-based tools on e-commerce platforms. The relationships among AI service experience, customer satisfaction and customer engagement were analyzed using SMART-PLS 4. The findings demonstrate that AI service experiences significantly improve customer engagement and satisfaction. Customer satisfaction also exerts a strong positive influence on customer engagement. Further, customer satisfaction has a crucial role in influencing AI-driven service results by partially mediating the relationship between AI service experience and customer engagement. The study offers practical marketing insights for professionals and service designers by showing how AI-enabled interactions enhance customer experience and engagement. The findings underscore the significance of creating AI systems that deliver functional and experiential affordances capable of improving satisfaction and fostering long-term engagement. This study extends affordance theory to the AI-enabled e-commerce context by offering empirical evidence on the process through which AI service experience strengthens customer engagement. It adds to the literature on AI-driven service design and provides meaningful implications for both researchers and practitioners.