Working paperSSRN
The Right Time for AI Empathy in Voice Commerce: Attribution Processes and Product Category Shape Decision Satisfaction
Mari, A., Uysal, D. E., Brooks, J., & Alabed, A.
Making sense of machines that make sense of us
We study the effects of empathic AI on human judgment, decision-making, and well-being through rigorous experiments with AI voice agents.
Five questions we are answering
Agentic commerceWhen a machine understands you, do you buy differently?How empathy in AI shopping agents shapes trust, product choice, decision satisfaction, and reliance.Sustainable consumptionCan an empathic voice close the gap between good intentions and real behavior?Whether empathic AI advisors can turn sustainable intentions into sustainable choices, and where ethical persuasion ends.Companionship in later lifeWhat happens when an AI companion remembers you?How empathy and long-term memory shape relationships between older adults and AI companions, and what follows for healthy aging.Customer serviceWhen things go wrong, can a machine's empathy make them right?Empathy as an emotional buffer: when an empathic response repairs a failed interaction, and when it merely decorates one.Emotion measurementWhat if the voice itself could tell us how consumers feel?Voice-analytics methods that read consumer emotion directly from prosody: rhythm, intonation, pace, and the signals beneath the words.
Latest on AI empathy
Working paperSSRN
Generative AI-Enabled Empathy and Persuasion in Voice Assistants: Impact on Sustainable Consumer Choice
Mari, A., Uysal, D. E., Alabed, A., Efthymiou, F., & Brooks, J.
Working paperSSRN
No Hard Feelings: The Protective Power of AI Empathy During Service Interaction Failures
Efthymiou, F., Mari, A., Uysal, E., & Brooks, J.
Working paperSSRN
The Voice of Emotion: Advancing Marketing Research Through Real-Time AI Emotion Measurements
Uysal, E., Alavi, S., Brooks, J., Mari, A., & Efthymiou, F.
A new generation of academics
The AI Empathy Lab brings together a new generation of academics to investigate how empathic AI, in the form of assistants, agents, and companions, shapes consumer behavior.
Our approach is distinctly experimental, and our medium is the voice. We conduct controlled experiments with real, working AI agents and systematically manipulate the dimensions of their behavior that matter most: the empathy they express, the persuasive strategies they employ, and their capacity to remember.
What is coming
Latest from the team
Aug 2026
The AI Empathy Lab's new home on the web
aiempathylab.com launches with our research programme, working papers, and the team behind them.
Jul 2026
Working paperJun 2026
A recurring, research-grade benchmark of empathic capability in leading AI assistants and companions.
