AI IN MARKETING AND ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Psych Gen AI
A Year Inside the Psychology of GenAI: What ARF Research Reveals About How AI Thinks

A Year Inside the Psychology of GenAI: What ARF Research Reveals About How AI Thinks

  • Psychology of GenAI
  • ARF; MSI

After conducting eight studies over the past year, what has the ARF learned about the psychology of generative AI? Across experiments examining bias, identity cues, product recommendations, executive decision-making and AI-assisted research, four patterns repeatedly emerged: GenAI tends to compress human variability into dominant responses, subtle differences in prompting can meaningfully change outputs, different models bring their own constraints and tendencies and AI can imitate the language of expertise more readily than it can exercise expert judgment. Taken together, the studies suggest that GenAI’s greatest strength and its greatest risk may be the same: its ability to produce coherent, convincing answers can make compression, instability and missing judgment difficult to see.

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Beyond Review: Why Human Judgment Remains Essential in AI-Assisted Research Design

Beyond Review: Why Human Judgment Remains Essential in AI-Assisted Research Design

  • Psychology of Gen AI
  • ARF; MSI

As generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into research workflows, what does "human in the loop" actually mean? This latest installment in the ARF and MSI's Psychology of Gen AI series explores how researchers and large language models can work together to develop rigorous research designs—and why human judgment remains indispensable throughout the process. By comparing multiple AI-generated experimental designs and refining them through expert evaluation, the study demonstrates that AI is most valuable as a collaborator that expands possibilities, not as a replacement for methodological expertise.

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From AI Adoption to AI Accountability: What Comes Next for Advertisers

From AI Adoption to AI Accountability: What Comes Next for Advertisers

  • ARF; The Advertising Club of New York

Artificial intelligence is becoming deeply embedded in advertising and marketing, but adoption alone is no longer the story. In this guest article for The Advertising Club of New York, ARF Senior Director of Research & Insights Tracy Adams examines findings from the ARF's latest AI research, which reveals that while organizations are increasingly confident in AI-generated outputs, many are still developing the testing, governance and measurement practices needed to ensure those outputs deliver meaningful business value.

When AI Meets Representation: The Consumer Reality of Synthetic Diversity

When AI Meets Representation: The Consumer Reality of Synthetic Diversity

  • ARF; MSI

As brands increasingly use AI-generated people in advertising, a new MSI Working Paper explores how consumers respond when those synthetic models are used to increase racial representation. Across multiple experiments, the research finds that disclosure of AI-generated Black models can reduce brand evaluations by weakening perceptions of authenticity and commitment to diversity initiatives, while similar effects do not emerge for White models. The findings offer important guidance for marketers seeking to balance technological innovation with meaningful representation.

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Striking the Right Balance in AI-Personalized Advertising

Striking the Right Balance in AI-Personalized Advertising

  • JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Generative AI is opening new possibilities for hyper-personalized advertising, including the ability to create AI-generated faces that closely resemble individual consumers. But how similar is too similar? This Journal of Advertising Research study finds that while moderate facial resemblance can improve advertising effectiveness, excessive similarity may backfire. The research introduces a new framework for measuring facial similarity and identifies an optimal personalization threshold that maximizes purchase intentions while avoiding consumer discomfort and resistance.

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Beyond the Recommendation: How Prompt Language Changes How AI Frames Your Brand

Beyond the Recommendation: How Prompt Language Changes How AI Frames Your Brand

  • Psychology of Gen AI
  • ARF; MSI

Generative AI tools are not just recommending products—they are shaping how consumers perceive them. This latest issue in the Psychology of Gen AI series, the third phase of the seventh study on AI product recommendations, examines how small changes in prompt wording alter the explanations AI systems generate around the same brand. Using ChatGPT descriptions of Arm & Hammer Advance White toothpaste across multiple, shopping-related prompts, the study reveals how AI recommendations construct different product narratives, emphasize different benefits and even introduce different caveats depending on the consumer’s wording of their question.

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AI Biases We Can’t See

AI Biases We Can’t See

  • ARF

While we have all heard about biases in AI LLMs regarding gender and race, we wondered what other biases might be lurking beneath the surface that we can’t readily see. On April 9, we dove into a study from Galileo Research & Strategy Consultancy about Americans’ Health & Wellness behaviors and attitudes. Attendees discovered what was learned and its implications for using AI in research studies.

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Privacy, Trust & AI: How U.S. Consumers Are Rewriting the Rules of Advertising

Privacy, Trust & AI: How U.S. Consumers Are Rewriting the Rules of Advertising

  • ARF Original Research

The ARF’s latest privacy study shows that U.S. consumers are more informed, more trusting and more engaged with artificial intelligence than ever before—yet still cautious about how it and other technologies use their data. Drawing on responses from more than 1,200 adults, the 2025 study reveals rising openness to data sharing when clear benefits exist, persistent skepticism toward certain targeting practices and growing expectations for transparency, especially around AI. For advertising researchers, the findings highlight a shifting privacy landscape where relevance, trust and first-party data strategies are increasingly intertwined.

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How to Build Lasting Brand Equity in the Age of AI

How to Build Lasting Brand Equity in the Age of AI

  • ARF
  • INSIGHTS STUDIOS

On December 4, this Insights Studio Session dove into new research explaining why cutting brand spend is more costly than ever and how leading marketers are delivering revenue growth by focusing on brand equity. Attendees learned about new tactics that mature marketers are using to build equity, drive consumer influence, and navigate the future of marketing.

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How AI and Privacy Regulations are Changing Media Planning Practices

How AI and Privacy Regulations are Changing Media Planning Practices

  • ARF; MSI; CIMM

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), in collaboration with CIMM and MSI, presents The Future of Media Planning in an AI-Powered, Data-Driven World. This report explores how AI, privacy-first strategies and outcome-based metrics are transforming the discipline of media planning. Designed for researchers and practitioners, the paper provides a roadmap for navigating audience fragmentation, evolving regulations and new measurement frontiers—while keeping business outcomes at the center of strategy.

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