Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
14 th INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK ACADEMIC RESEARCH CONGRESS ON SOCIAL, HUMANITIES, ADMINISTRATIVE, AND EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, New York, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 12 - 14 Aralık 2025, ss.318-319, (Özet Bildiri)
Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become an integral component of modern marketing communication. By enabling automated content generation, AI systems now assist brands in creating advertising visuals, scripts, and video materials that were traditionally developed through human creativity. While these AI-generated advertisements appear visually perfect and technically advanced, a growing body of evidence suggests that consumers often perceive them as emotionally shallow and lacking a human touch. This paradox between visual perfection and emotional detachment raises critical questions about how AI affects consumer perception and brand-related outcomes. This study focuses on perceived authenticity, defined as the extent to which an advertisement feels genuine, human, and emotionally honest. Authenticity plays a vital role in shaping brand trust, emotional engagement, and purchase decisions. In the context of AI advertising, perceived authenticity may decrease when consumers realize that the content is algorithmically produced rather than humanly crafted. However, this effect is unlikely to be uniform across consumers, as individual differences in trust in AI can shape how people evaluate AI-driven creativity. Consumers who trust AI technologies may view AI-generated ads as innovative and credible, whereas those with lower trust may interpret them as impersonal or manipulative. To investigate these dynamics, the research employs an experimental 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. The independent variables are ad source (AI-generated vs. human-made) and ad type (emotional vs. informational), while trust in AI functions as a measured moderator. Perceived authenticity serves as a mediating variable that connects ad characteristics to purchase intention, the key behavioral outcome. The experiment will include approximately 240 participants randomly assigned to eight conditions. Participants will be exposed to a single advertisement scenario and then complete a structured questionnaire using validated scales: perceived authenticity, trust in AI, and purchase intention. Manipulation checks and pretests will ensure internal validity by verifying that ad stimuli differ only in source and message type while remaining equivalent in design and appeal. The study expects to find that AI-generated advertisements lead to lower perceived authenticity and reduced purchase intention compared to human-made advertisements. Nevertheless, these effects are anticipated to be significantly moderated by consumers’ trust in AI. For participants with high trust in AI, the negative impact of AI-generated ads on authenticity and purchase intention will likely weaken, indicating a buffering effect of trust. Additionally, emotional ads are expected to enhance authenticity perceptions regardless of production source, suggesting that emotional storytelling can mitigate technological distance. Theoretically, this research contributes to marketing communication and consumer psychology by integrating authenticity theory and perspectives on algorithmic trust into the study of AI advertising. It highlights perceived authenticity as a crucial psychological bridge between technological advancement and consumer response. Practically, the findings will guide marketers in designing AI-based advertisements that preserve emotional depth and human connection. By understanding how trust in AI moderates perceptions of authenticity, brands can better decide when and how to disclose AI use, balance automation with creativity, and sustain consumer trust in the era of intelligent marketing communication. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Advertising, Perceived Authenticity, Trust in AI, Consumer Behavior, Emotional Design, Purchase Intention.