AI and Customer Trust: Addressing Ethical Concerns in Digital Marketing and Advertising
Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence, Customer trust, Ethical AI marketing, Digital Marketing, Competence, Benevolence, IntegrityAbstract
The industry of digital marketing (DM) now entered a new period which brings better personalized experiences and enhanced ability to forecast customer behavior through artificial intelligence (AI) implementation. However, the evaluation of technology has created a significant paradox. AI system has become more capabilities than before but consumer trust remains fragile. People worry about this issue because "black box" algorithms operate without giving users any information about their decision-making process. The absence of transparent information about the system results in greater public distrust according to the study findings. This study illustrates how DM efficiency requirements now conflict with organizations which want to implement ethical AI solutions. The finding of our study suggests that the current trust deficiencies are a systematic problem and are not merely a failure of data security. Trust has three major components integrity, benevolence and perceived competence. The research also investigates the main ethical challenges related to privacy personalization paradox, discrimination in the system, algorithmic bias and also the rise of manipulative “dark patterns” as core ethical challenges in DM and advertising. The researchers of the study also demonstrate that future competitive advantage relies on shifting from a purely utilitarian data mining model to one of radical algorithmic accountability. Therefore, we proposed a framework for “Ethical AI Marketing” (EAM) which establish that transparent human centric design act as the primary mechanism for rebuilding the consumer brand relationship. EAM also offer practitioners actionable principles to foster humancentric AI in DM and advertising. Our future research direction emphasizes on transparent and auditable systems that prioritize consumer trust rather than unethical exploitation
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