Exploring user acceptance of physical intelligent assistants: A study on AI-powered eyewear

Ben Niu and Gustave Florentin Nkoulou Mvondo

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2025, vol. 220, issue C

Abstract: As AI becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life, driven by the ongoing AI hardware revolution, physical intelligent assistants (PIAs), such as AI-powered eyewear, are emerging as transformative technologies that enable natural language interaction and autonomous task execution. While prior research has largely focused on digital assistants and traditional smart glasses, limited scholarly attention has been given to the factors influencing user adoption of AI-powered eyewear. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) with perceived intelligence factors (conversational intelligence, task intelligence, and perceived naturalness), interface design aesthetics, and privacy concerns. Data were collected from 629 US users and analyzed using PLS-SEM and fsQCA. The results show that perceived intelligence factors and perceived ease of use positively affect perceived usefulness and user acceptance, while interface design aesthetics, although not affecting perceived usefulness, directly enhances acceptance. In contrast, privacy concerns negatively impact acceptance. The fsQCA analysis further reveals both function-driven and style-conscious configurations associated with high acceptance, emphasizing that adoption depends on thoughtfully tailored feature bundles rather than a one-size-fits-all design. Across all pathways, privacy concerns consistently emerge as a fundamental barrier. This study advances the literature and provides actionable insights for designers and marketers seeking to foster adoption of AI-powered eyewear.

Keywords: TAM; Perceived intelligence; Design aesthetics; Privacy concerns; Physical intelligent assistant; AI-powered eyewear (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162525003312
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:220:y:2025:i:c:s0040162525003312

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124300

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().