AI: A Study Reveals That Consumers Are More Willing to Lie to Chatbots Than to Human Agents

Artificial intelligence is already transforming customer service, payments, and online commerce. But a new study reveals an unexpected blind spot: consumers lie much more easily to AI than to a human being. Without eye contact, without judgment, does the machine disinhibit bad tendencies?

Consumers Feel Less Judged by AI

The study published in the Journal of Business Research by researchers from Sun Yat-sen University in China provides new insight into human psychology when dealing with artificial intelligence. The researchers observed several customer service scenarios to analyze consumer behavior when interacting with a human or with AI.

The result is clear: participants were more willing to lie, exaggerate, or exploit errors when facing a chatbot. Some claimed unjustified discounts. Others deliberately took advantage of pricing errors. In several experiments, users even artificially inflated their results to obtain additional rewards.

According to the researchers, this behavior is mainly explained by the absence of social pressure. When facing a human employee, consumers fear more the other’s gaze, judgment, or embarrassment. This concept is described in the study as “anticipated loss of face.”

With AI, this psychological barrier largely disappears. Many people still consider chatbots as tools devoid of social consciousness or emotion. As a result, lying seems less morally serious.

This phenomenon reflects a profound transformation of digital interactions. As AI replaces humans in call centers or commercial platforms, traditional social cues gradually fade.

A Major Development for Businesses and the Digital Economy

This study comes at a key moment for the tech sector. Large companies are massively accelerating the integration of AI agents into their operations. According to Gartner, nearly 80% of customer service issues could be autonomously resolved by AI agents by 2029.

This automation represents an immense economic lever. Companies seek to reduce costs, improve support availability, and speed up customer responses. Tech giants are already investing billions of dollars into these AI-powered infrastructures.

But this transition could also open new behavioral vulnerabilities. If consumers feel less responsible when dealing with a machine, fraud and abuse could increase in certain digital sectors.

However, the researchers identified an interesting avenue. When AI agents appeared more competent or used human signals, such as simulated eye contact or facial expressions, dishonest behaviors markedly decreased.

This conclusion aligns with another study conducted in 2025 on humanoid robots. Consumers granted more trust to robots displaying moderate human traits. Conversely, robots that were too realistic often caused psychological discomfort linked to the well-known “uncanny valley.”

In the coming years, companies will therefore need to strike a delicate balance: making AI human enough to inspire trust, without crossing the boundary into discomfort.

The issue goes far beyond simple customer service. This evolution could influence the entire digital economy, from banks to crypto platforms, where AI already manages transactions, identity verifications, and automated financial services.