Many companies invest in artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to create new-age interactive platforms for consumers to achieve business goals. The research on AI chatbots from a marketing perspective is scant and scattered across the sectors. This paper aims to analyse extant research on AI chatbots in the marketing context, providing insights on leading work, journals, institutions, authors, trends and future research directions.
This study used the Scopus database to identify 242 articles published between 1996 and 2023 on AI chatbots in the area of business management and decision sciences. This bibliometric analysis used VOS viewer software to analyse the publication and citation structure, co-authorship, collaboration network of institutions and countries, keyword co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling.
The study provides valuable insights from the most cited articles, shedding light on their contribution to AI chatbot research in the marketing area. It also highlighted the publication trends, notable authors, journals and bibliographic analyses to identify key trends in AI chatbot-oriented marketing. The result reveals that consumer-oriented chatbot research is presently focused on understanding consumer perception of chatbots. Consumer chatbot experience and engagement are future research areas for AI chatbots in the marketing domain. The bibliometric analysis unveils that research on AI chatbot role in marketing is currently in nascent stages and there is limited intellectual exchange to understand the consumer intention toward chatbot use.
This study not only provides a comprehensive overview of AI chatbot research in marketing during the past 27 years but also suggests future opportunities for researchers to work on AI chatbots in a marketing context. To further enhance the comprehensiveness of data collection, it is recommended to include another source like the Web of Science, which is among the largest research databases.
The research contributes significantly to the study of the extant research on AI chatbots in marketing from the Scopus database for the period from 1996 to 2023. This is probably the most comprehensive bibliometric analysis conducted to understand the status of research on AI chatbots and identify trends and future research directions. This research helps in coordinating intellectual networks among institutions, authors and countries.
