Human-Centric AI Digital Human Advisors and Brand Trust: Social Presence versus Telepresence

AI Digital Human Advisors have become increasingly prevalent as socially expressive frontline agents in digital financial platforms, yet how their design features translate into brand trust remains insufficiently understood. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework, this study examines how form cues, behavioral cues, and interaction cues of AI Digital Human Advisors influence brand trust through presence-based experiential mechanisms. Using survey data from 487 experienced users of AI digital human advisors in financial applications and structural equation modeling, the results reveal a clear asymmetric pattern. While all three categories of design cues significantly enhance both social presence and telepresence, only social presence directly contributes to brand trust and serves as a robust mediating mechanism. Telepresence, although associated with immersive experiential engagement, does not independently foster trust in high-risk financial advisory contexts. These findings advance a human-centric perspective on digital transformation by demonstrating that trust in AI-mediated financial services is grounded more in socially responsive interaction than in immersive experiential vividness, offering implications for the design of trustworthy and sustainable AI-enabled financial platforms.