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EDITORIAL article

Front. Commun.

Sec. Advertising and Marketing Communication

Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1714230

This article is part of the Research TopicArtificial Intelligence in the Context of Marketing CommunicationsView all 5 articles

Editorial: Artificial Intelligence in the Context of Marketing Communications

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 2National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania
  • 3Sofijski universitet Sv Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 4Rusenskiat universitet Angel K'ncev, Ruse, Bulgaria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

One contribu�on highlights the moral condi�ons that should underpin the use of genera�ve AI in marke�ng. Grounded in a deontological framework, the study iden�fies requirements such as transparency, fairness, accountability, and compliance, with intellectual property emerging as decisive for brand reputa�on. This underscores that the growing use of genera�ve AI must not be evaluated solely in terms of efficiency or crea�vity, but also in terms of the ethical safeguards that sustain consumer trust and long-term legi�macy (Floridi et al. 2018).Another study examines the role of AI-generated personas in crisis contexts. By dis�nguishing between animated and humanized virtual influencers, it shows that while human influencers remain more effec�ve overall, humanized virtual influencers foster stronger percep�ons of similarity and iden�fica�on. Importantly, the research suggests that enhancing mental human-likeness and narra�ve richness can increase message acceptance and brand image repair. This expands the scope of crisis communica�on research by showing how AI-mediated iden��es may one day serve as credible organiza�onal representa�ves, a finding consistent with broader scholarship on parasocial interac�on and influencer authen�city (Sundar 2020).A third contribu�on provides a wide-ranging review of AI's role across marke�ng ac�vi�es, from adver�sing and public rela�ons to neuromarke�ng and sales promo�on. It emphasizes AI's advantages, including cost reduc�on, scalability, personaliza�on, and con�nuous opera�on, while also cataloguing significant risks: data privacy viola�ons, cybersecurity threats, manipula�ve prac�ces, competence gaps, and labor displacement. By situa�ng these insights within the European Union's policy frameworks, such as the Digital Decade and the Digital Europe Programme, the study underscores that effec�ve adop�on requires not only technological innova�on but also governance, regula�on, and skills development (European Commission 2023;Taddeo and Floridi 2018).The final ar�cle offers a comprehensive overview of how AI supports customer engagement, personaliza�on, and value co-crea�on across industries. It iden�fies factors shaping consumer acceptance, such as trust, perceived usefulness, and ease of use, while also poin�ng to barriers like transparency concerns, ethical dilemmas, and resistance to adop�on. Unlocking AI's full poten�al in marke�ng therefore requires integra�on across strategic, organiza�onal, and technological dimensions, aligning with consumer expecta�ons and corporate values (Venkatesh et al. 2012;Davenport et al. 2020).Taken together, these four contribu�ons demonstrate that AI in marke�ng communica�on is not merely a mater of deploying new tools but a profound socio-technical transforma�on. Ethical inquiry, communica�ve innova�on, systemic risk assessment, and strategic integra�on emerge as mutually reinforcing perspec�ves that will shape the field's trajectory. These findings highlight the need to approach AI holis�cally, recognizing the interdependence of technological capacity, human percep�on, organiza�onal strategy, and regulatory oversight.Looking forward, future research should con�nue to explore how AI can be integrated responsibly and sustainably into marke�ng communica�on. Cri�cal ques�ons remain: How can ethical standards be embedded into AI design? Under what condi�ons will consumers accept AI-mediated communicators as credible and authen�c? What regulatory frameworks best balance innova�on with accountability? And how can organiza�ons align technological capabili�es with strategic goals to create long-term value? Addressing these ques�ons will require interdisciplinary collabora�on, drawing on marke�ng, communica�on, ethics, psychology, and informa�on systems.As AI technologies evolve, the balance between opportunity and risk will be decisive for shaping consumer percep�ons and brand legi�macy. The contribu�ons in this Research Topic suggest that progress in marke�ng communica�on will depend less on the technical sophis�ca�on of AI systems alone, and more on how organiza�ons design, govern, and communicate their use. By foregrounding ethics, authen�city, and responsibility, the field can chart a path toward an AI-enabled marke�ng landscape that fosters innova�on, trust, and sustainable engagement.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, Marketing commitniaition, Customer engagement (CE), advertising, Virtual influencers

Received: 27 Sep 2025; Accepted: 07 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Vangelov, Vrabie, Petkova and Lyubenov. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Nikola Vangelov, nlvangelov@uni-sofia.bg

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