Journal Name: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
The growing integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in traditional search interfaces is transforming how consumers search for information online. When AI-generated summaries are at the forefront without allowing users to opt out, their search experience becomes less user-driven and more system-controlled. Yet, its impact on consumer switching intentions is underexplored. Grounded in consumer empowerment and psychological reactance theories, this mixed-method research investigates how the lack of a choice feature to opt out of AI integration drives consumer switching intentions. Analyzing real-world discussions on Reddit, followed by an experiment, our findings reveal that when users lack the choice to disable AI-generated content, they feel less empowered, more intrusive, and irritated, increasing their likelihood of switching. Our findings extend interface design literature by identifying “choice to opt out of AI feature” as a critical design element for GenAI interfaces. While previous research has primarily theorized consumer empowerment in AI-enabled interfaces by focusing on autonomy, power, and control, our findings advance this literature by empirically demonstrating consumer choice as a novel and critical antecedent of empowerment. Further, we contribute to psychological reactance theory by extending it to a permanent, system-level disruption and demonstrate that the scale and permanence of reactance drive switching intentions. We provide actionable recommendations for interface designers to incorporate a toggle switch into GenAI interfaces, enabling users to choose to disable AI features. It suggests that managers may use empowerment as a strategic differentiator of interfaces to prevent consumers from migrating to alternative interfaces.