Artificial empathy in chatbots of Peru's financial and banking system: a scoping review of the evidence (2021–2026)
Keywords:
Artificial empathy; chatbots; digital banking; financial services; emotional trust; customer experience; scoping review; Peru.Abstract
The Peruvian banking sector has rapidly integrated virtual assistants and chatbots into its digital service channels; however, scientific research regarding the empathetic dimension of these automated interactions remains in its early stages. This study aimed to map and synthesize scientific evidence published between 2021 and 2026 on how empathy is conceptualized, designed, and evaluated in chatbots for banking and financial services, while determining its impact on customer experience and assessing its relevance to the Peruvian financial system. A scoping review was conducted following the methodological framework established by Arksey and O'Malley—further refined by Levac et al. and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines—and reported in strict accordance with the PRISMA-ScR extension. Due to restricted access to subscription-based commercial databases, an open-access protocol was implemented using the Crossref public metadata API, open academic search engines, and Peruvian institutional repositories, with each DOI verified individually. Twenty peer-reviewed studies in Spanish, English, or Portuguese were included and organized into three categories: financial contexts involving affective measures, general financial acceptance, and a cross-cutting category focused on transferable empathetic mechanisms. Three studies pertain to the Peruvian context and one to Costa Rica; no evidence was found regarding peri-urban areas, such as North Lima. To mitigate single-evaluator bias, a dual-reviewer protocol with independent cross-verification was applied (κ = 0.88). Only seven studies explicitly evaluate empathy; eight employ affective-relational approaches, while five do not incorporate affective measures. The evidence demonstrates that empathetic language significantly enhances emotional trust and satisfaction, functioning through a Dual Model of Technological-Affective Trust. However, its effectiveness is contingent upon the cause of the failure, the compensation offered, the system’s autonomy, and the availability of escalation paths to human personnel (human-in-the-loop). For Peru, the evidence is scarce and correlational; there is a need to develop locally validated scales, conduct experiments in situations of financial stress, and implement hybrid service architectures.
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