An attendant or a tool? The production of chatbots as a moral device

Abstract

This article presents the results of research on the creation process of chatbots, communicative interfaces that use natural language, analyzed through the perspective of the sociology of critique (Boltanski and Thévenot, 2020; 1999) and economic sociology (Muniesa and Callon, 2007). The study employed comprehensive semi-structured interviews (Kaufmann, 2013) with production professionals, aiming to understand how they perceive and incorporate digital commercial dynamics into the tool. The results reveal that these professionals, divided into backend and frontend roles, develop a specific understanding of the user and justify their approaches based on different views of the commercial interaction between a chatbot and a user, which the research identifies as distinct moral metaphysics: the industrial cité, the inspired cité, and the renown cité (Boltanski and Thévenot, 2020). Thus, the chatbot reflects various aspects of digital interaction between user and machine, adjusted through agreements between specialists and the contracting company on the technology's purpose in specific contexts, as exemplified in the cases of the chatbots Lu and BIA. In this way, the chatbot operates as a market device, capable of transforming consumption dynamics and shaping the company's brand perception.