When citizens meet the chatbot: Evidence from a survey vignette experiment in Estonia

Art Alishani; Vincent Homburg

doi:10.1177/09520767251404286

When citizens meet the chatbot: Evidence from a survey vignette experiment in Estonia

Art Alishani^*
, Vincent Homburg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Policy, Politics and Society

University of Tartu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

Governments are increasingly using chatbots to facilitate public encounters. Using survey vignette experiments conducted in Estonia, we conclude that citizens’ perceived usefulness and trust in technology significantly correlate with the intended use of chatbots in public encounters. Privacy concerns are related to the intended uses of chatbots for service provision but not for information provision, while trust in government, explainability, and the amount of information are not related to the intended uses of chatbots. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how citizens’ attitudes and perceived risks are relevant to citizens’ intended use of artificial intelligence applications in citizen-state relations.

Original language	English
Number of pages	24
Journal	Public Policy and Administration
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/09520767251404286
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 10 Dec 2025

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© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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title = "When citizens meet the chatbot: Evidence from a survey vignette experiment in Estonia",

abstract = "Governments are increasingly using chatbots to facilitate public encounters. Using survey vignette experiments conducted in Estonia, we conclude that citizens{\textquoteright} perceived usefulness and trust in technology significantly correlate with the intended use of chatbots in public encounters. Privacy concerns are related to the intended uses of chatbots for service provision but not for information provision, while trust in government, explainability, and the amount of information are not related to the intended uses of chatbots. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how citizens{\textquoteright} attitudes and perceived risks are relevant to citizens{\textquoteright} intended use of artificial intelligence applications in citizen-state relations.",

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N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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AB - Governments are increasingly using chatbots to facilitate public encounters. Using survey vignette experiments conducted in Estonia, we conclude that citizens’ perceived usefulness and trust in technology significantly correlate with the intended use of chatbots in public encounters. Privacy concerns are related to the intended uses of chatbots for service provision but not for information provision, while trust in government, explainability, and the amount of information are not related to the intended uses of chatbots. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how citizens’ attitudes and perceived risks are relevant to citizens’ intended use of artificial intelligence applications in citizen-state relations.

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When citizens meet the chatbot: Evidence from a survey vignette experiment in Estonia

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