Humanizing the Machine: Anthropomorphism and the Uncanny Valley in AI-Mediated Service Recovery

As sophisticated Artificial Intelligence takes on the critical task of service recovery, the design strategy of anthropomorphism presents both a compelling opportunity and a significant risk. An imperfectly human AI can provoke an “uncanny valley” response, turning a recovery attempt into a more alienating experience. Integrating justice theory with social presence and expectancy violation frameworks, our two experimental studies (N = 500; N = 800) dissect this crucial tension. Our results reveal a key fragility: the positive influence of behavioral and emotional anthropomorphism on justice and affinity perceptions is entirely contingent on flawless execution. Minor glitches in highly human-like agents negate these benefits by violating customer expectations of authentic interaction. This research offers a robust theoretical model of the contingent nature of human-like AI design and provides clear, actionable principles for creating service agents that enhance, rather than undermine, customer relationships during recovery.