Consumer Empowerment through Generative Artificial Intelligence

Feng, Y., & Sun, Y. (2025). Consumer empowerment through generative artificial intelligence: Enhancing brand narrative with collaboration, creation, and communication. International Journal of Advertising, 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2025.2547545

Despite its growing popularity, little is known about how brands’ use of generative AI (GenAI) to invite consumers to co-create brand-related content affects consumer empowerment and advertising outcomes. This practice reflects consumer-generated advertising (CGA) through human-GenAI collaboration. Using the mixed methods-grounded theory (MM-GT) and an anthropocentric lens, we conducted 17 in-depth interviews with experienced GenAI users to identify three key constructs in co-creation: collaboration, creation, and communication. A survey of 326 general GenAI users validated these constructs and tested their relationships with consumer empowerment, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions. Results showed that collaboration and communication enhance empowerment, which in turn improves brand attitudes and purchase intentions, while creation follows an inverted U-shaped relationship with empowerment. The research advances understanding of human-GenAI collaboration in CGA and provides strategic insights for brands using GenAI in advertising.

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