User acceptance of smart home voice assistant: a comparison among younger, middle-aged, and older adults

Voice assistants are widely used in smart home environments. This study aimed to investigate user acceptance of a smart home voice assistant. A questionnaire was designed, and 471 Chinese adults were recruited to complete the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis. The results revealed that user requirements of adults were composed of six factors: hedonic motivation and trust (β = .41, p < .001), social influence (β = .22, p < .001), performance expectancy (β = .15, p < .001), effort expectancy (β = .08, p = .018), product features (β = .15, p = .009), and facilitating conditions (β = .06, p = .049). Among these six factors, hedonic motivation and trust are considered the most important. Younger, middle-aged, and older adults differed significantly in their requirements and acceptance of a smart home voice assistant. These findings have implications for the design of smart home voice assistants so that they are more acceptable to younger and older adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10209-022-00936-1.