Abstract

Brand endorsers can contribute to a brand’s success or failure (in the case of endorser transgressions). Recent advancements in technology have produced new, nonhuman alternatives to traditional celebrity endorsers. These new endorsers rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to interact with and influence consumers. Two studies demonstrate that AI influencers can produce positive brand benefits similar to those produced by human celebrity endorsers. Moreover, just like their human counterparts, AI influencers can also commit transgressions that result in degradation of the endorsed brand. Importantly, though, AI influencers differ from human celebrity endorsers in that consumers are less likely to view them as unique entities (as tested in a pilot study). Thus, consumers are more likely to perceive a transgression committed by an AI influencer as behavior applicable to all AI influencers, but they are less likely to view celebrity endorser behaviors as interchangeable. As such, after an AI influencer has committed a transgression, replacing the AI influencer with a celebrity endorser attenuates negative brand perceptions, an effect which cannot be realized if the replacement is another AI influencer.

摘要

品牌代言人可以为品牌的成功或失败做出贡献（对于代言人的违法行为）。技术的最新发展为传统名人代言人带来了新的，非人类的替代品。这些新的代言人依靠人工智能（AI）与消费者互动并影响消费者。两项研究表明，人工智能影响者可以产生与人类名人代言人类似的正面品牌收益。而且，就像人类同行一样，人工智能影响者也可能犯下违法行为，从而导致认可品牌的质量下降。但是重要的是，人工智能影响者与人类名人代言人的不同之处在于，消费者不太可能将其视为独特的实体（在一项初步研究中进行了测试）。因此，消费者更有可能将AI影响者的违法行为视为适用于所有AI影响者的行为，但他们不太可能将名人代言人的行为视为可互换的。这样，在AI影响者犯了罪之后，用名人代言人代替AI影响者会减弱负面的品牌认知，如果替代者是另一个AI影响者，则无法实现这种效果。