Determination of Customer Readiness Level to Adopt Artificial Intelligence Technologies and its Impact on Customer Satisfaction on Example of the Russian Banking Sector

To survive in the digital age, banks leverage on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to gain competitive advantage. Among various goals banks seek to improve customer experience through AI applications, enhance customer satisfaction and assure customer retention. Such achievements are expected to generate revenue growth and increase profitability. While customer service is a promising area for AI application, there is a lack of studies investigating how interaction with AI systems as a part of customer journey influences customer behavior and satisfaction. The objective of this research is to evaluate the readiness level of Russian banks' clients to use AI technologies and to study how customer readiness level impacts customer satisfaction from interaction with AI-enabled services. The study considers trust to AI systems, previous experience, and personality traits as factors influencing customer readiness level. Among personality traits, the study explores the influence of innovativeness, extraversion and openness to experience. The research has an empirical nature. The mixed method research was chosen to achieve the purpose of this study. The study results are based on the analysis of 188 responses collected through online survey. Responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling and sentiment analysis. The results show a strong positive relationship between customer readiness level and customer satisfaction. Trust has a positive effect on customer readiness level, while previous experience does not play a significant role. Innovativeness strengthens the relationship between trust and customer readiness level. However, the influence of extraversion and openness to experience is not significant. Meanwhile, the results of sentiment analysis indicate that customers are tuned positively to AI technology in banks, their level of readiness can be described as above average. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Customer Readiness Level, Technology Acceptance, Customer Satisfaction, Banking