What is the Value of AI’s Creative Work? Human Appraisals and Consumer Choice of Computational Aided Product Design

In the evolving landscape of e-commerce, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in product design has sparked a debate on the perceived value of AI-designed products versus those designed by humans. Our research-in-progress is examining consumer attitudes towards AI-designed products, focusing on the implications for e-commerce platforms' disclosure policies. We present initial findings from two online experiments. The first studies product valuation, while the second focuses on product choice in a mixed environment with both AI-designed and human-designed products. Both studies explore the mediating roles of perceived effort and creativity in these processes. Our Initial results indicate that consumers allocate greater value and are more likely to choose human vs. AI-designs. In terms of mechanism, we show that consumers perceive human design as more creative and effortful and that these perceptions mediate the effects on valuation and choice.