The 4th Industrial Revolution refers to a new industrial era based on information and communication technology in which cutting-edge information and communication technologies such as metaverse, artificial intelligence, big data, IOT, and mobile are i...
The 4th Industrial Revolution refers to a new industrial era based on information and communication technology in which cutting-edge information and communication technologies such as metaverse, artificial intelligence, big data, IOT, and mobile are integrated with the economy and society and innovative changes occur (Sa Jae-hoon, 2017) . In this era, in the financial field, robo-advisor conversational artificial intelligence has emerged as a fintech service that combines finance and technology, and artificial intelligence communicates with people and manages assets on behalf of human judgment. We provide financial services.
Robo-advisor technology is a compound word of the two words robot and advisor, and is an automated asset management service in which a robot provides personalized asset management and advice (Sa Jae-hoon, 2017). Following the rapid growth of digital technology and COVID-19, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly spreading across all industries. Bughin et al. (2018) predicted that about one-third of jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence technology by 2030, and as a result of evaluating the performance of artificial intelligence introduction in 12 countries, the introduction of artificial intelligence Productivity was expected to increase by more than 40%.
In fact, it is understood that the intention to adopt artificial intelligence is very high in domestic industries as well. According to Kim Jeong-hoon (2021), 100% of respondents said they were willing to continue using artificial intelligence technology in the financial field. In addition, approximately 60% of these companies responded that they would consider additional introduction of artificial intelligence at the current level of artificial intelligence use. Meanwhile, even among companies that are not currently introducing artificial intelligence technology in the financial sector, 33.3% responded that they plan to introduce it in the future. This is the second highest response rate among the five sectors (healthcare, manufacturing, finance, public/safety transportation/logistics) where artificial intelligence has a large economic impact, after the public/safety sector (41.4%). Such positive responses appear to be due to positive management performance, such as increased sales and increased operating expenses, in organizations that have adopted artificial intelligence.
In order for the Metaverse industry to develop, an environment must be created where people can freely create, share, and trade value while conducting social, economic, and cultural activities conveniently in the digital space, as is the goal of Metaverse. Artificial intelligence technology must be used to support Metaverse services. It will help realize and improve various ideas (Bang Jun-seong, 2022). Strategy Analytics predicts that the market size of extended reality (XR: eXtended Reality) hardware, one of the core technologies for metaverse services, will increase more than six times from $46 billion in 2021 to $280 billion in 2025. It is expected to increase, and PwC (Price waterhouse Coopers) predicts that the XR industry will contribute to raising the global economic scale to 1.4 trillion pounds by 2030 (Bang Jun-seong, 2022).
Although metaverse and artificial intelligence-based financial services are attracting attention as innovative technologies and have many advantages such as contributing to the popularization of asset management, there is a lack of academic and systematic research other than introduction of algorithms or data on industry trends (Sa Jae-hoon, 2017). Therefore, this study intends to conduct an empirical study using research models and data on the factors that influence the characteristics of metaverse-based robo-advisors on the intention to use asset management services.
This study conducted a data survey on robo-advisors and metaverse to understand the characteristics of the technology, and analyzed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and previous studies related to new technology acceptance to complete the research model and hypothesis. The research model was based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).
The independent variables section selected reliability, playfulness, interactivity, and social presence as the characteristic variables of the metaverse, and cost reduction, objectivity, and convenience as the characteristic variables of the robo-advisor.
The parameters were composed of ease and usability. The dependent variable was composed of intention to use. In addition to these variables, the adjustment effect section consisted of prior experience, income, age, occupation, investment experience, and gender.
For empirical analysis, a survey was conducted targeting digital banking asset management service users who were using digital banking services. A total of 400 surveys were collected, but 379 were collected excluding those that checked the same answers and 21 with insincere responses. It was verified by final analysis. SPSS and R were used as analysis tools.
Structural equation modeling was used to verify each hypothesis. As a result of the analysis, it was found that among the metaverse characteristics, interactivity and social presence influenced ease of use, and that among the robo-advisor characteristics, cost reduction, objectivity, and convenience affected ease of use. In addition, among the metaverse characteristics, interactivity and social presence were found to affect usefulness, and among the robo-advisor characteristics, cost reduction and objectivity were found to affect usefulness. Additionally, ease of use influenced usability. Regarding the factors that influence the characteristics of Metaverse-based robo-advisors on the intention to use asset management services, both ease of use and usefulness were found to affect the intention to use the asset management service.
The moderating effect showed that the group with prior experience showed higher results showing that usefulness affects intention to use and that convenience affects usability than the group without prior experience. In the group with no prior experience, the results of the effect of ease of use on usability, the effect of ease of use on usability, and the effect of interaction on usability were higher than those in the group with prior experience. In terms of age, the middle-aged group showed a higher level of playfulness influencing usefulness than the young group, and the young group showed a higher level of social presence influencing usefulness than the middle-aged group. In the occupation section, the results showed that the self-employed group had a higher influence on convenience than the office workers and professional groups. In the investment experience section, the group without investment experience had higher results showing the effect of reliability on ease of use, the effect of social presence on usability, and the effect of convenience on ease of use than the group with investment experience. The results showed a high impact. In the group with investment experience, the results showed that trust had a higher impact on usefulness than in the group without investment experience.
This study conducted an exploratory study on financial services that combine metaverse and artificial intelligence technology in the early stages of the market that have not yet been commercialized, provided reference materials from various perspectives on ways to utilize the financial sector, and derived limitations of the study. The direction of future research was presented.