Persuasive Communication with AI: Personalization, Trust and Ethical Challenges
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/16/01ComuniKeywords:
Artificial Intelligence, Persuasive Communication, Digital Marketing, Personalization, Algorithmic Ethics, Consumer TrustAbstract
This study analyzes the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on persuasive communication in digital marketing, with emphasis on personalization, consumer trust, and ethical challenges. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was applied, combining semi-structured interviews with marketing professionals from 50 companies and structured surveys with 500 consumers. Results show significant improvements in conversion, engagement, and satisfaction, but also increasing concerns about privacy and algorithmic manipulation. The study concludes that integrating AI into marketing strategies requires human oversight and strong ethical principles. A responsible implementation model is proposed to enhance personalization without compromising transparency or communicative fairness.
Metrics
References
BRYMAN, A. (2016). Social Research Methods (5th ed.). London: Oxford Universi-ty Press.
COMISIÓN EUROPEA. (2020). Guía del usuario sobre la definición del concepto de pyme. Oficina de Publicaciones de la Unión Europea. https://op.europa.eu/es/publication-detail/-/publication/756d9260-ee54-11ea-991b-01aa75ed71a1
CRESWELL, J. W., & PLANO CLARK, V. L. (2017). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research (3ª ed.). SAGE Publications.
DAVENPORT, T., GUHA, A., GREWAL, D., & BRESSGOTT, T. (2020). How artificial intel-ligence will change the future of marketing. Journal of the Academy of Mar-keting Science, 48, 24–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00696-0
EUBANKS, V. (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin’s Press.
FERNÁNDEZ-FERNÁNDEZ, J. L., & PINILLOS, A. (2011). De la RSC a la sostenibilidad corporativa: Una evolución necesaria para la creación de valor. Harvard Deusto Business Review, (204), 50–57.
FLORIDI, L., COWLS, J., BELTRAMETTI, M., CHATILA, R., CHAZERAND, P., DIGNUM, V., ... & VAYENA, E. (2018). AI4People—An ethical framework for a good AI society: Opportunities, risks, principles, and recommendations. Minds and Machines, 28(4), 689–707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9482-5
GREWAL, D., & ROGGEVEEN, A. L. (2017). The future of retailing. Journal of Retail-ing, 93(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2016.12.008
GUNNING, D., & AHA, D. W. (2019). DARPA’s explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) program. AI Magazine, 40(2), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v40i2.2850
HAIR, J. F., RISHER, J. J., SARSTEDT, M., & RINGLE, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203
HERNÁNDEZ-SAMPIERI, R., FERNÁNDEZ-COLLADO, C., & BAPTISTA-LUCIO, P. (2014). Metodología de la investigación (6ª ed.). McGraw-Hill.
INDESIA (2024). Barómetro de adopción de la inteligencia artificial en las py-mes españolas: Edición 2024. Asociación para la Digitalización de la Industria Española. https://www.indesia.org/barometro-ia-v8-1/
KAPLAN, ANDREAS & HAENLEIN, MICHAEL. (2019). Rulers of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence. Business Horizons, 63(1), 37–50. https://doi.org/ 63. 10.1016/j.bushor.2019.09.003
KUMAR, V., RAMACHANDRAN, D., & KUMAR, B. (2021). Influence of new-age tech-nologies on marketing: A research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 125, 864–877. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.01.007
LEE, M. C. M., SCHEEPERS, H., LUI, A. K. H., & NGAI, E. W. T. (2023). The imple-mentation of artificial intelligence in organizations: A systematic literature review. Information & Management, 60(5), 103816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2023.103816
LONGONI, C., BONEZZI, A., & MOREWEDGE, C. K. (2019). Resistance to medical artifi-cial intelligence. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(4), 629–650. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucz013
MITTELSTADT, B. D., ALLO, P., TADDEO, M., WACHTER, S., & FLORIDI, L. (2016). The ethics of algorithms: Mapping the debate. Big Data & Society, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679679
NAGAMINI, E., & AGUADED, I. (2018). La educomunicación en el contexto de las nuevas dinámicas discursivas mediáticas. Revista Mediterránea de Comuni-cación, 9(2), 119–121. https://doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM2018.9.2.27
RAJI, I. D., SMART, A., WHITE, R. N., MITCHELL, M., GEBRU, T., HUTCHINSON, B., ... & BARNES, P. (2020). Closing the AI accountability gap: Defining an end-to-end framework for internal algorithmic auditing. In Proceedings of the 2020 Con-ference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT '20)* (pp. 33–44). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3351095.3372873
RED.ES. (2023). La transformación digital en la pyme española: Informe de re-sultados del Programa Oficinas Acelera pyme. Entidad Pública Empresarial Red.es. https://www.acelerapyme.gob.es/sites/acelerapyme/files/2023-03/informe_transformacion_digital_pymes_redes_2023.pdf
RIES, E. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Crown Business.
RUSSELL, S. J., & NORVIG, P. (2020). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (4ª ed.). Pearson Education.
SUNDAR, S. S. (2020). Rise of machine agency: A framework for studying the psy-chology of human–AI interaction. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communi-cation, 25(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmz026
SURAÑA‐SÁNCHEZ, C., & ARAMENDIA‐MUNETA, M. E. (2024). Impact of artificial in-telligence on customer engagement and advertising engagement: A review and future research agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 48(3), e13027.https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.13027
TADIMARRI, A., GURUSAMY, A., SHARMA, K. K., & JANGOAN, S. (2024). AI-powered marketing: Transforming consumer engagement and brand growth. Interna-tional Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i02.14595
TORRES-TOUKOUMIDIS, Á., SANTÍN PICOITA, F., & HENRÍQUEZ MENDOZA, E. (2024). Inteligencia artificial y educomunicación. https://doi.org/10.52495/c2.emcs.23.ti12
YIN, R. K. (2017). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods. SAGE Publications.
ZOZAYA DURAZO, L. D., FEIJOO FERNÁNDEZ, B., & SÁDABA CHALEZQUER, C. (2022). Análisis de la capacidad de menores en España para reconocer los contenidos comerciales publicados por influencers. Revista de Comunicación, 21(2), 307–319. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC21.2-2022-A15
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 África Presol Herrero, Aitor Gil García (Autor/a)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit to this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine's right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoComercial 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine, with no commercial purpose.
Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the magazine (for example, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
It allows and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as a citation more early and most of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).









