The AI-authorship effect: Understanding authenticity, moral disgust, and consumer responses to AI-generated marketing communications

• Using Generative Artificial Intelligence (vs. a human) to author emotional messages reduces positive word of mouth and loyalty. • The effect diminishes when communications are factual, or an AI is only used for editing. • Having a chatbot speak for the brand, rather than via a human, reduces the effect. • The effect is reversed when communications are copied from other sources. • Perceived authenticity and moral disgust explain the effects. Seven preregistered experiments demonstrate that when consumers believe emotional marketing communications are written by an AI (vs. a human), positive word of mouth and customer loyalty are reduced. Drawing from authenticity theory, we show that this “AI-authorship effect” is attenuated for factual (vs. emotional) messages (Study 2); when an AI only edits the communication (Study 3); when a communication is signed directly by an AI (Study 4); and when consumers believe that most marketing communications are written by AI (Study WA1). Importantly, when consumers believe a communication is reused (i.e., not originally written by the sender), the effect is reversed (Study 6). This “AI-authorship effect” is serially mediated by perceived authenticity (Studies 5 and 6) and moral disgust (Studies 1–6 and WA1). These findings are evidenced using both personalized and mass communications, different emotions, businesses and organizational employees, and both hypothetical and behavioral measures.