The Term "AI" Has Become a Dirty Word in the World of Marketing

It seems that Silicon Valley giants, AAA game developers, and other companies desperately clinging to the AI trend and trying to integrate the technology into any product they own will soon have to rethink their marketing strategies, as a new study conducted by researchers from Washington State University indicates that using terms like "AI" or "artificial intelligence" in product descriptions can negatively impact sales.

To explore the impact of including "AI" in goods and service descriptions on consumers' purchase intentions, the team conducted six experiments and surveyed over a thousand people, discovering that the use of these terms decreases purchase intention and lowers emotional trust, leading to what any company fears the most – diminishing sales numbers.

Furthermore, the researchers found that putting artificial intelligence in the spotlight can be even more detrimental when it comes to high-risk products – those consumers typically think twice about buying, such as expensive gadgets and medical services – compared to low-risk items, primarily because of the greater likelihood of incurring monetary losses or facing health risks.

It's worth noting that the study perfectly aligns with an earlier report from Ad Age, which indicated that more and more companies are now expressing concerns about advertisers integrating generative AI into their workflows. The businesses worry that the technology could taint the final output with the creative imprint of another brand, leading them to include a "no AI, no how" clause in contracts signed with advertising agencies.

Interestingly, it's not the first time that the experts have warned us about the potential dangers of AI, as just recently, Google's AI research team highlighted how this technology is already having negative effects on the internet. According to the report, the most common real-world misuses of AI involve manipulating human likenesses (e.g., deepfakes) and falsifying evidence, often aimed at influencing public opinion, enabling scams, or generating profit.

Speaking of AI, last week, SAG-AFTRA kicked off a new strike involving actors working on video games, intending to force major game development and publishing studios that hire SAG-AFTRA talent to sign an agreement protecting guild members from having their likenesses and voices used to train artificial intelligence models.

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