Over the past decade, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a general-purpose technology for marketing, enabling hyper-personalization, dynamic pricing, customer journey optimization, and, increasingly, the creation of generative content at scale (Huang and Rust, 2021; Puntoni et al., 2021; Hermann and Puntoni,2025). For example, sophisticated analytics and machine learning enable firms to infer preferences, forecast demand, and continuously test interventions with unprecedented granularity (Hermann and Puntoni 2024). Generative AI presents new opportunities for expanding human creativity, resulting in novel patterns of behavior and consumption (Park, 2024). Thus, AI is transforming every dimension of human life, from how we work and connect to how we find purpose, meaning, and happiness. Yet, amid this technological acceleration, the question remains: Is AI marketing enhancing or eroding human well-being?
The use of revolutionary technologies is a double-edged sword, capable of both improving and harming well-being. AI has shown potential to boost human welfare in many ways, such as providing personalized services (Zhang et al., 2024), fulfilling social needs (Marriott and Pitardi, 2024), and reducing loneliness (De Freitas et al., 2025). At the same time, AI use also raises concerns like privacy issues (Kim et al., 2023), individual alienation (Puntoni et al., 2021), perceived uncertainty (Hong, 2025), and neglect of personal uniqueness (Mou et al., 2023), which can negatively impact human well-being (Barari et al., 2024). Beyond personal effects, AI marketing can influence social well-being by raising ethical challenges in markets, spreading deceptive content, generating negative biases, affecting perceptions of fairness, and limiting inclusion—thereby impacting the legitimacy of marketing institutions (Hermann, 2022). In summary, while AI-driven marketing offers many benefits to stakeholders by improving their well-being, its ongoing development and integration into daily life have also resulted in widespread negative effects, from individual well-being to broader social welfare.
Given rapid commercial deployment and changing regulatory expectations for trustworthy, transparent, and fair AI, this special issue therefore aims to provide testable mechanisms, validated tools, and proven interventions—enhancing understanding of how AI marketing impacts human well-being while offering practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers.
Impact of AI in Marketing on Consumer Well-Being
Empowering Small and Medium-Sized Businesses with AI Marketing Tools
AI Marketing and Consumer Perceptions of Fairness
Generative AI and Its Role in Building Consumer Trust
AI-Driven Consumer Insights and Privacy Limits
Personalized AI Marketing and Consumer Decision-Making
User Experience of AI Interactive Tools in Retail Scenarios
Algorithmic Bias and Consumer Discrimination in AI Marketing
AI-Based Social Responsibility Marketing (AI-SR Marketing) and Consumer Well-Being Identification
Cultural Adaptation and Consumer Well-being in Cross-Border AI Marketing
The Future of AI Marketing Ecosystem and Long-Term Consumer Well-Being
The Impact of AI Marketing on the Well-being of Vulnerable Consumer Groups
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De Freitas, J., Oğuz-Uğuralp, Z., Uğuralp, A.K. and Puntoni, S. (2025), “AI companions reduce loneliness”, Journal of Consumer Research, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucaf040
Hermann, E. (2022), “Leveraging artificial intelligence in marketing for social good—an ethical perspective”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 179 No. 1, pp. 43-61.
Hermann, E. and Puntoni, S. (2024), “Artificial intelligence and consumer behavior: from predictive to generative AI”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 180, Article 114720.
Hermann, E. and Puntoni, S. (2025), “Empowering GenAI stakeholders”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, pp. 1-7.
Hong, S.J. (2025), “What drives AI-based risk information-seeking intent? insufficiency of risk information versus (un)certainty of AI chatbots”, Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 162, Article 108460.
Huang, M.H. and Rust, R.T. (2021), “A strategic framework for artificial intelligence in marketing”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 30-50.
Kim, W., Ryoo, Y., Lee, S. and Lee, J.A. (2023), “Chatbot advertising as a double-edged sword: the roles of regulatory focus and privacy concerns”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 52 No. 4, pp. 504-522.
Marriott, H.R. and Pitardi, V. (2024), “One is the loneliest number… two can be as bad as one: the influence of AI friendship apps on users’ well-being and addiction”, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 86-101.
Mou, Y., Xu, T. and Hu,Y.(2023), “Uniqueness neglect on consumer resistance to AI”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 41 No. 6, pp. 669-689.
Park, H.E. (2024), “The double-edged sword of generative artificial intelligence in digitalization: an affordances and constraints perspective”, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 41 No. 11, pp. 2924-2941.
Puntoni, S., Walker Reczek, R., Giesler, M. and Botti, S. (2021), “Consumers and artificial intelligence: an experiential perspective”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 85 No. 1, pp. 131-151.
Zhang, Y., Tan, W. and Lee, E.J. (2024), “Consumers’ responses to personalized service from medical artificial intelligence and human doctors”, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 118-133.
