AI's Ethical Crossroads: Trust, Governance, and Marketing's Future

As artificial intelligence permeates marketing, a new study urges businesses to prioritize ethics and transparency to maintain consumer trust and long-term success.

Ethical AI Imperatives

The research highlights the need for generative AI in marketing to adhere to moral principles. Requirements include transparency, fairness, accountability, and respect for intellectual property.

Brand reputation hinges on these factors, meaning AI's value shouldn't be measured solely by efficiency or creativity. Instead, ethical safeguards are critical for sustaining consumer trust and legitimacy.

Virtual Influencers in Crisis Communication

Another study explores AI-generated personas during crises. It differentiates between animated and humanized virtual influencers to see which are most effective.

While human influencers still perform better overall, humanized virtual influencers create a stronger sense of connection. Enhancing their mental human-likeness and narrative can improve message acceptance and repair brand image.

AI's Double-Edged Sword

AI offers advantages like cost reduction, scalability, and personalization across marketing activities. Yet, it also presents risks such as data privacy violations and cybersecurity threats.

It can also lead to manipulative practices, competence gaps, and job displacement. Effective AI adoption needs technological innovation, governance, regulation, and skills development, especially within EU policy frameworks.

Consumer Acceptance and Strategic Alignment

AI can enhance customer engagement, personalization, and value co-creation across various industries. However, several factors influence consumer acceptance. These include trust, perceived usefulness, and ease of use.

Barriers remain, like transparency concerns, ethical dilemmas, and resistance to adoption. Fully unlocking AI's potential requires strategic, organizational, and technological integration that aligns with consumer expectations and company values.

The Path Forward: Responsible AI Integration

Integrating AI in marketing is a profound socio-technical shift, not just the deployment of new tools. The study emphasizes ethical inquiry, communicative innovation, systemic risk assessment, and strategic integration.

Future research should focus on embedding ethical standards into AI design and determining when consumers will trust AI communicators. Finding the right balance between innovation and accountability is critical as AI evolves.