Building trust for sustainable AI chatbot adoption: Policy pathways for smart cities/ government in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The study represents a novel investigation of the external factors highlighting trust in acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot system in Sri Lanka’s government, using an augmented technology acceptance model (TAM) as a new research framework by adding external constructs such as trust (TR), legal/ regulatory support (LR) and user experience (EX) into TAM. It is important to understand user perspectives on trust to expand and promote integration of generative AI systems in government operations. This study provides a structured survey to find respondents’ thoughts on using AI chatbot systems to enhance government service delivery. The data were analyzed using structural equation model (SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships with a valid sample size of 412 responses obtained from Sri Lanka. The findings revealed that LR and EX have a positive and significant impact on TR and TR has a positive and significant impact on TAM’s PE toward BI to accept generative AI systems in government. The findings with the new model aim to shed light on how the identified constructs with trust affect user acceptability, helping government policymakers to create more effective generative AI transformation plans for smart cities/ government. © 2025, Sustainable Building Research Center. All rights reserved.