AI-Driven Enhancements to Customer Experience: A Causal Case Study of Yassir's Retail Super-App in North Africa

Abstract

Abstract The research at hand seeks to measure the extent of causation to be attributed to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) on customer experience (CX) in the retail-delivery ecosystem of Yassir, which is known as the main super-app in North Africa and it operates in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. We analyze the data for two years (104 weeks) collected weekly from operations, and we also consider the staggered rollout of the AI-enabled features (recommendation engine, automated support, dynamic routing). A difference-in-differences (DiD) plus event-study procedures are employed to capture the impact of AI exposure on a combined CX index (conversion rate, repeat usage, session depth, complaint metrics). In addition, we speculate digital service quality (DSQ) as a mediating factor and look at the shares of impact in the country-markets, delivery channels, and customer tenure dimensions. The results indicate that an increase in AI exposure by one unit translates to an increase of 0.020 in the CX index (p < 0.01), and that DSQ is responsible for about 40% of the total effect. The Moroccan market is where the impact is the greatest, followed by the mobile-app channel, and it is very significant among new users. The event-study curves indicate that there were very consistent pre-treatment trends prior to organic rollout but clear post-rollout gains which thereby confirm the reliability of the identification strategy. The present results are in line with the growing empirical evidence of AI technology being anointed as a facilitator of customer experience in developing digital ecosystems and at the same time providing practical insights for managerial practice in African retail-delivery markets.