Value co-destruction in AI-powered mobile applications: analysis of customer reviews

Customers increasingly interact with non-human actors such as AI-powered mobile applications (AI apps) for information, advice, and purchase. As the main actor in the service delivery process, these AI apps and their novel resources not only co-create but also co-destroy value with customers in a more complex way. This study explores the contributing factors of value co-destruction during the interaction between customers and AI apps. Drawing on the service dominant logic perspective, we analysed 1,683 negative reviews from eight AI apps retrieved from Google Play and App Store. We identified six different types of values (utilitarian, hedonic, symbolic, social, epistemic, and economic values) that can be co-destroyed. The contributing factors of value codestruction include system failure, threat of self, privacy concern, and justification of the result. Our findings offer theoretical contributions to the AI-driven service literature and provide practical recommendations for designing AI apps to avoid value co-destruction.