A Study Comparing Consumer Responses to Human-created and Generated AI Ads: Focus on Telecommunications Ads

With the rapid advancement of Generative AI, the industry increasingly uses AI-based advertising.This study compares consumer responses to AI-generated and human-created advertisements by analyzing their effects on advertising trustworthiness, ad attitude, and purchase intention while examining the moderating role of brand attitude.Focusing on medium involvement products, specifically telecommunications advertising, an experimental design was employed where participants viewed either an AI-generated or human-created ad, and their responses were analyzed.Results show that AI-generated ads received higher ratings for advertising trustworthiness and ad attitude due to their perceived accuracy and personalized messaging.However, purchase intention was lower for AI ads, as consumers perceived them as nonhuman, leading to weaker emotional persuasion.Furthermore, brand attitude moderated these relationships.Consumers with high brand attitudes trusted traditional ads more, while those with low brand attitudes saw little difference between AI and traditional ads in trustworthiness and ad attitude.This study provides empirical evidence that AI-generated ads can be effective in medium-involvement products, but brand attitude significantly shapes consumer responses.Companies should enhance AI ad credibility and emotional appeal while considering brand attitude in AI advertising strategies.This is even more important for medium-involvement products.