Surrendering Consumption to Artificial Intelligence: Consumer Agency and Responsible Consumption in AI-Mediated Markets

This paper explores the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in shaping consumption, and the contribution AI might make to transitioning to a responsible consumption and production regime, in line with Goal 12 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This paper draws on Practice Theory, an established framework for studying sustainable consumption practices. Based on this framework, the authors suggest that whilst in traditional consumption, the expertise required to consume resides in human subjects, in AI-shaped consumption this expertise resides in AI algorithms. This may have implications for consumers’ agency and can put them at disadvantage. Indeed, the EU has proposed regulations to control the use of AI by providers. The paper draws on two case studies, Ant Forest, a Chinese app which prompts consumers to adopt responsible consumption practices and Mobility as a Service, a platform-based mobility offering. We find that whilst the former contributes to establishing consumers’ expertise in sustainable behavior—for example, through gaming—the latter may remove consumers’ choice by performing some of the consumption practices itself, such as selecting sustainable means of transportation. Our contribution is the formulation of a version of Practice Theory which is adapted to AI.