From Customer Relationships to AI Companionships: Transforming Marketing with Feeling AI

Emotions with a product or service strongly influence consumer behaviour. Conventional marketing relied on user-centred designs to achieve loyalty. In the past few decades, firms have deployed AI-enabled technologies to create, communicate and deliver value. Algorithms could initially perform mechanical and thinking-oriented tasks only. However, recent developments have empowered machines with feeling intelligence to understand user emotions. Thus, the current article examines the literature on the emerging scope for feeling AI in marketing. Additionally, this study introduces the ‘Five Wheels of Feeling Marketing’, a conceptual model and a strategic ‘FEELING’ framework, designed to transition traditional businesses into enterprises driven by feeling AI.