Tool or Replacement? Why Consumers Accept Some AI Marketing Functions and Reject Others

Most AI marketing research looks at one function at a time. This paper puts four in front of the same consumer under the same conditions.

A 150-person within-subjects survey compared consumer responses to AI creative advertising, AI personalized content delivery, AI customer service chatbots, and AI virtual brand spokespeople. Same brand. Same disclosure. Same respondents. Only the function changed.

The results are split into two tiers. Personalized content and chatbots scored higher. Creative advertising and virtual spokespeople scored lower. All cross-tier gaps were significant at p < .001. The dividing line was source type: consumers respond differently when AI operates as a background system than when it occupies a role previously held by a human.

The paper also includes practitioner evidence from the gaming sector and function-specific deployment recommendations.

Completed as a DSM 596 Capstone at USC Annenberg, Spring 2026.

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