AI-Powered Mental Health Virtual Assistants Acceptance: An Empirical Study on Influencing Factors Among Generations X, Y, and Z

Abstract

STUDY PURPOSE: This study aims to analyze various influencing factors among generations X (Gen X), Y (Gen Y), and Z (Gen Z) of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered mental health virtual assistants. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey design was adopted in this study. The study sample consisted of outpatients diagnosed with various mental health illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and behavioral disorders. A survey questionnaire was designed based on the factors (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and behavioural intention) identified from the unified theory of acceptance and use of the technology model. Ethical approval was received from the Ethics Committee at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: A total of 506 patients participated in the study, with over 80% having moderate to high experience in using mental health AI assistants. The ANOVA results for performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), and behavioral intentions (BI) indicate that there are statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z participants. CONCLUSION: The findings underscore the significance of considering generational differences in attitudes and perceptions, with Gen Y and Gen Z demonstrating more positive attitudes and stronger intentions to use AI mental health virtual assistants, while Gen X appears to be more cautious.

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