As chatbots become a standard touchpoint in customer service, managers face a deceptively simple design question: should bots use emojis at all? New research suggests the answer is yes – but only when emojis are used strategically. In a study published in the Italian Journal of Marketing, Mafalda Pescatore and Stefania Farace show that non-facial emojis, such as objects or symbols, can improve user satisfaction when they are semantically aligned with the chatbot’s message. In other words, emojis work best not as decoration, but as cues that reinforce meaning and make communication feel more competent.

This insight matters because many firms are investing heavily in AI-powered customer service while still struggling with a core challenge: making chatbot interactions feel effective rather than frustrating. The article shows that emoji-text congruency can serve as a practical design lever. Across two experiments in travel and healthcare, the authors find that when non-facial emojis match the message content, users perceive the chatbot as more competent, which in turn drives satisfaction.

At the same time, the findings offer an important warning for managers tempted to make bots sound overly playful. The research provides preliminary evidence that the positive effect of congruent non-facial emojis weakens when the chatbot uses excessively informal language. For practitioners, the message is clear: effective chatbot communication is not about adding more expressive elements, but about aligning verbal and visual cues in ways that signal competence and professionalism. In the interview below, the authors explain what these findings mean for managers designing chatbot interactions across industries, and how firms can use emojis more strategically to improve the customer experience.

Based on your findings, how should managers decide when and how to use non-facial emojis in chatbot communication?

Managers should use non-facial (NF) emojis when they can align them semantically with the text. If a message is about pizza, the chatbot should use a pizza emoji (rather than a fire one). In our study, when NF emojis matched the message content, consumers perceived the chatbot as more competent and, in turn, reported higher satisfaction. The practical rule is simple: treat NF emojis as meaning-carrying cues, not as decoration – use them when they clearly reinforce what the chatbot is saying.

What do your results suggest managers should prioritize to signal chatbot competence rather than human-likeness?

Given the ongoing debate on whether making agents too anthropomorphic is beneficial, we focused on NF emojis, cues that are not strongly human-like, yet can still add vividness and make messages clearer. In line with this idea, our results suggest a clear direction: when NF emojis are semantically congruent with the accompanying text, they make the chatbot appear more competent, which ultimately increases customer satisfaction. In practice, this means managers can leverage NF emojis as a lightweight, meaning-supporting cue, without pushing the bot toward human-like expressiveness.

Your study shows that language style matters: how can managers balance clarity, professionalism, and informality in chatbot design?

We find preliminary evidence that congruent NF emojis do not enhance the customer experience when the chatbot’s language is overly informal. This suggests that the added value of NF emojis can be neutralized when they are paired with wording that is typically seen as less professional. The takeaway for managers is straightforward: don’t combine very playful wording with emojis and expect it to automatically improve the experience. A safer approach is to keep the tone moderately formal and use NF emojis mainly to reinforce meaning, so the bot comes across as efficient and professional, without risking that it seems gimmicky.

What practical lessons can service managers in different industries take from your findings to improve user satisfaction with chatbots?

The effect of NF emojis that are semantically congruent with the text was consistent across the two contexts we tested (i.e., travel and healthcare), suggesting that this approach can work even when stakes and baseline expectations of professionalism differ. This gives managers a simple and cost-effective design level: by strategically adding congruent NF emojis, they can make the chatbot appear more competent and, in turn, increase customer satisfaction. The key is to treat NF emojis as a deliberate communication tool used to reinforce meaning, rather than as a random stylistic add-on.

Copertina: Image by Florian Pircher from Pixabay