Programmatic creative: AI can think but it cannot feel

Abstract

The authors conduct two studies to examine artificial intelligence (AI) in creative programmatic contexts. Findings indicate that consumers have equally favorable attitudes toward human-created and Al-created cognitive-oriented advertising, but form lower evaluations of Al-created emotion-oriented creative content. Programmatic creative ads are effective for rational appeals and utilitarian products, but are ineffective for emotional appeals and hedonic products. The studies indicate that human rather than AI input is needed for creating emotion-oriented advertisements.