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272 Socially Intelligent Agentslenging problem within the area of ECA research. With technological improvementsthis issue may be resolved, improving user confidence with respect tothe security, confidentiality and reliability of such systems.Two thirds of the participants (24/36) thought the assistants enhanced theservices and they enjoyed speaking to them. One participant said: “I enjoyedtalking to the assistants, I was even polite to them”. Participants felt the assistantsshould be polite and cheerful, demonstrating competence during theinteraction. To do this it was suggested that they should smile and provideappropriate verbal and non-verbal feedback.3. DiscussionIt was hypothesised that participants would respond positively to the embodiedagents. The results support this prediction suggesting that 3D ECA’s havea role to play as assistants in VRML e-commerce applications. The resultssupported also a further claim that casually dressed agents are more suitablein virtual cinemas, and formally dressed agents are more suitable in virtualbanking applications. It is important to know that ECA’s would be welcomedin e-commerce domains especially given the number of commercial websitesthat are exploring the use ECA’s as marketing tools (e.g. Extempo Inc, VirtualFriends).Participants felt the cinema was more entertaining than the travel agencyand banking application. Although ECA’s were welcomed in all three retailapplications, results suggest it is important to consider carefully the nature ofthe application task and be aware that ECA’s might be more effective in lessserious applications, where the consequences of failure are less serious. Nevertheless,the responses to the use of ECA’s in these more serious applicationsmay be improved if users’ confidence in the system can be increased and thetrustworthiness of the agent can be firmly established. Suggested methods toachieve this included better and faster response times from the agents, havingthe opportunity to enter data using the keyboard and also seeing additionaltextual feedback on the interface.All four agents were perceived to be polite, friendly, competent, cheerful,sociable and agreeable; all traits important for assistants in retail and e-commerce spaces. The trustworthiness of the agents was the only aspect wheredifferences between the applications emerged. The qualitative results showedthat participants were less likely to trust agents to complete tasks correctly inthe banking application. During the interviews, participants stated that theywould be more likely to use the applications if the ECA was more convincingthat the inputted information was being processed correctly.