The Moderating Role of Consumer Digital Trust in the Relationship Between AI Anchors and the Intention to Purchase Agricultural Products

Abstract

The widespread application of artificial intelligence technology in the e-commerce field has brought new development opportunities for agricultural product e-commerce through AI digital anchors, but it has also inevitably led to "trust" issues due to the characteristics of the products. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model and trust theory, this paper proposes a theoretical framework with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as independent variables, intention to purchase as the dependent variable, and digital trust as the moderating variable. Empirical analysis results show that the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of AI anchors have a significant positive effect on consumers’ purchase intention for agricultural products. The level of consumers’ digital trust exerts a positive moderating effect on the relationship between perceived usefulness and purchase intention. The higher the level of digital trust, the more prominent the effect of perceived usefulness on purchase intention. Similarly, the level of digital trust also has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between perceived ease of use and purchase intention. Therefore, establishing consumers’ digital trust in agricultural product live-streaming e-commerce can turn the technological advantages of AI anchors into actual purchasing behavior, which has theoretical and managerial significance.