Are Professionals also influenced by AI to Make Impulse Buying? A Dual-System Cognitive Process of Sports-Specialised Customers

In the context of human–AI collaborative consumption, AI chatbots have emerged as a critical tool for enhancing consumer conversion rates on e-commerce platforms. Their influence on impulsive buying behaviour among general consumers has garnered significant academic and industry attention. However, the extent to which AI-driven recommendation systems may influence expert judgment requires further empirical investigation. To investigate the impact of interactions between sports-specialised consumers and AI chatbots on impulsive buying behaviour with respect to athletic training products, this study integrates the S-O-R model with dual-systems theory and constructs a dual-path cognitive mechanism. It explores the mediating roles of flow experience and perceived risk, as well as the moderating effects of sports-specialised consumers, within the dual-path framework. The results indicate that AI service quality positively influences the impulsive buying tendencies of sports-specialised consumers through flow experience, that AI service quality negatively affects their impulsive buying tendencies through risk perception, and that customers with sports-related expertise serve as a moderating variable, attenuating the positive effect of flow experience induced by AI chatbots and amplifying the positive influence of perceived risk. This study elucidates the cognitive processing pathways of sports-specialised consumers in human–computer interactions and provides empirical evidence to assist e-commerce enterprises in optimising AI service design for targeted demographic segments.