Generative AI and Product Designs
(A2025-125766)

AUTHORS

Dipayan Biswas, University of South Florida; Courtney Szocs, Pennsylvania State University; Janina Garbas, ESCP Business School; Franziska Krause, EBS University of Business and Law

ABSTRACT

Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) is increasingly being used for product designs, with firms often highlighting its role in their ads. This research demonstrates that advertising and disclosing the role of AI in aesthetic product design can have unintended negative consequences. Seven studies, including one field study, show that disclosing (vs. not disclosing) the role of AI in product design adversely affects perceived design creativity which leads to less favorable product reactions (i.e., product design evaluations, purchase intentions, choice likelihood and product ad clicks). The effects of AI design disclosure on creativity are driven by lower perceived divergent thinking capability of AI (vs. humans) rather than mere algorithm aversion. These findings suggest that marketers should rethink advertising the role of AI in their product designs and avoid disclosing the employment of AI when creativity is important.