With over 40 research articles published in top academic journals, advertising expert Yang Feng is at the forefront of understanding how artificial intelligence is transforming the advertising industry.
Feng’s research on AI in advertising and emerging technologies is featured in leading publications, including the Journal of Advertising and Journal of Health Communication. She currently serves as a guest editor of a new special issue of the International Journal of Advertising titled “AI in Advertising: New Directions in Practice, Consumer Responses, and Research Methods.”
An associate professor of communications in Cal State Fullerton’s College of Communications, Feng is training students so they have the AI literacy and skill set they’ll need to set themselves apart in a competitive job market.
Feng explains how the AI era is changing advertising and consumer behavior. She also describes how she is preparing students to succeed alongside this new technology.
How has AI evolved over the past two decades?
When I began using AI as a researcher about 10 years ago, its main function was data analysis. Since then, AI has expanded with the rise of platforms like ChatGPT, which ushered us into an era of generative AI. More recently, we’ve moved onto agentic AI, in which AI systems continue to collaborate with humans, but the AI has more independence and autonomy.
How are you training students to leverage AI in future communications careers?
Companies are looking for candidates who understand how to use AI mainly as a brainstorming tool. This is something that I integrate into my class, Advertising Creative Strategy and Execution. Using my expertise and literacy, I designed multiple AI lab assistants and agents that students utilize in class.
During each AI lab session, students use the agent to analyze a fictitious case study relevant to students’ campus life. The AI tool acts as a guide while students identify key concepts and conduct analysis individually with the AI agent. The purpose of this exercise is to train them to think with AI and to approach AI-generated information critically and responsibly.
After the AI lab sessions, students participate in a peer discussion, where they work with other students to apply what they learned and analyze a real case from the industry. Through this process, students are prepared for class discussions and they know what questions to ask to move the assignment forward, which are skills that will be essential as they transition into a job market that will continue evolving in this AI era.
What are some of the ways that companies and brands use AI to reach their audiences?
One of the most popular ways that companies leverage AI to promote their brand and products is through the use of AI influencers, which are virtual personas that are often created by technology companies to share and promote content on platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok. It’s often safer for companies to pair with non-human influencers because they are easier to control and they pose less reputational risk than human endorsers. This is how virtual influencers like Lil Miquela — who has more than 2 million followers on Instagram — have become spokespeople for top brands like Prada and Calvin Klein.
We’ve also seen an increase in AI-generated personalized advertising. Companies will use consumers’ demographic and psychographic data to create personalized ads that they can deliver right to consumers’ social media feeds.
What are some of the factors that determine if consumers trust advertising content that incorporates AI?
One of my most cited research articles looks at the qualities of AI influencers and how those attributes affect consumer attitudes and trust. There are seven key attributes of AI influencers: anthropomorphism, artificiality, attractiveness, luminary, quality, trendiness and robophobia. My study found that several of these attributes positively enhance people’s trust, including attractiveness; anthropomorphism, which is when influencers exhibit human traits; and luminary, which is when an influencer appears similar to a well-known celebrity or character.
However, I also found that consumers’ willingness to accept an AI influencer was negatively impacted by robophobia. This fear of robots and other automated technologies is connected with AI aversion. If we tell consumers, “This is AI generated” versus telling people “This is human generated,” you can see that people’s evaluations and attitudes are very different. Oftentimes, people feel a bias and negative attitude toward AI, regardless of the quality of the output.
What causes AI aversion and how can consumers confront it?
One of the ways to combat AI aversion is to understand how AI works, so that we can make informed decisions about how we interact with and respond to AI systems. In one of my studies for the International Journal of Advertising, my collaborators and I conducted 17 in-depth interviews with experienced generative AI users to identify the ways in which users interact with the AI tool. We call this the 3C framework: collaboration, creation and communication.
We found that collaboration and communication greatly impact users’ experience with AI. If they feel like they’re the lead collaborator and that AI understands their instruction, they are empowered by AI and are more likely to accept it because they feel that they are in control of the co-creation process. Creation is where it gets tricky. At first, AI’s ability to generate creative outcomes can make users feel more empowered by enhancing their own creativity. However, if they feel like AI is too powerful and generates outcomes that go beyond their own creative input, it creates a disconnect and users don’t feel empowered.
The trick to preventing that disconnect is first understanding how AI works in the specific field or industry you’re working in, such as advertising. As students and faculty, we also need to understand how AI fits into education and pedagogy, so that we can advance AI literacy for future generations. AI is going to continue to evolve, so it’s our responsibility to learn how to approach it responsibly and ethically.