Understanding Customer Responses to AI-Driven Personalized Journeys: Impacts on the Customer Experience

Within advertising, the customer journey concept helps explain how customer perceptions and behaviors evolve through seller–customer interactions. The concept has developed to reflect omni-channel marketing but neglects the emergence of algorithmically personalized advertisements. This study therefore explores impacts upon customer experiences of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven recommendations and personalized advertisements by analyzing customer perceptions of tensions between the personalization and customer empowerment inherent within AI-driven advertising. By combining semi-structured phenomenological interviews with Customer Journey Mapping, we capture experiences and behaviors across multiple touchpoints. Our findings show how technological limitations of AI mediate brand–customer relationships and influence customer behaviors. The study contributes theoretically by critically contextualizing AI-driven advertising within broader ethical debates, emphasizing practitioners’ responsibilities to combine technological advancements with consumer autonomy.