Consumer Acceptance of AI in Retail: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Usefulness and Risk

Abstract

This study examines how artificial intelligence reshapes retail and how consumers ultimately accept or resist artificial intelligence enabled services. Using a systematic literature review of peer reviewed journal articles on retail, online shopping, and artificial intelligence based voice assistants and chatbots, the study synthesises evidence on benefit related and risk related pathways. The review confirms that perceived usefulness is a central mechanism through which automation, personalisation, and decision support translate into favourable attitudes, stronger purchase intentions, and even impulse buying in artificial intelligence mediated retail environments. At the same time, perceived privacy, performance, and security risks operate as countervailing forces that weaken trust and willingness to rely on artificial intelligence, even when functional benefits are salient. Across the literature, perceived usefulness and perceived risk are still modelled mainly as separate predictors rather than as integrated mediators. The study therefore proposes a dual pathway framework that explains consumer acceptance through simultaneous benefit and risk evaluations for more consumer centric retail strategies