The special issue draws upon three strands of literature. The first explores the evolving interaction between human intelligence and artificial intelligence. A balanced augmentation approach combining human and artificial intelligence is recommended rather than an automative approach. This calls for co-intelligence, using AI as a co-worker. Recent research has explored the creative collaboration between humans and AI to co-create brand voice, identifying effective human-AI co-creation as happening at three levels: the individual brand professional, the organisational level of brand management and the societal level, the external environment in which the brand operates. Frameworks have been developed for human marketers and consumers collaborating with AI within the retail sector.
A second strand focuses purely on AI in marketing and brand development. One cluster of papers concerns specific technologies such as use of chatbots, AI-empowered voice assistants and AI influencers. Another argues for an enhanced customer experience due to AI through increased efficiency and customer insight. Key issues are identified including the need to bridge the AI-human gap by developing stronger artificial empathy to strengthen the affective and social customer experience. This rapidly evolving focus purely on AI pushes us to consider the implications for the marketing profession but also the relationship between brands and consumers.
The third strand of literature emphasizes a new role for people in developing brands. This includes calls for a new human to human (H2H) mindset as a way of rebuilding brand trust. Employee empathy, verbal communication, emotional intelligence and the ability to handle new and complex situations are identified as core roles of brand managers in an AI world. Marketing professionals are called upon to apply humanity to disrupt AI dominance and be audacious in disrupting brand narratives. Humanistic marketing proposes that the human individual is the start point for strategies that move beyond wealth creation to enable human flourishing. Humanist capitalism is needed for global sustainability. Scholars identify the importance of human insight and creativity for brand purpose, authentic brand expression and creating emotional connections with customers. This strand of literature also discusses the implications of AI capacity and capability within brand management, noting that for smaller organisations such as nonprofits there is a risk they will be left behind in efforts to harness AI for more effective customer-brand relationship building.
The special issue welcomes empirical papers (qualitative and quantitative) as well as thought-leading conceptual papers.