How Artificial Intelligence Constrains Human Experience

Many consumption decisions and experiences are digitally mediated. As a consequence, consumer behavior is increasingly the joint product of human psychology and ubiquitous algorithms (Braun et al. 2024; cf. Melumad et al. 2020). The coming of age of Large Language Models is further accelerating the dissemination and impact of artificial intelligence (AI). AI holds the promise of improving the life of consumers everywhere, in ways small and large. At the same time, the deployment of this technology is not without risks. The societal discourse on the potential risks of AI tends to focus on issues of discrimination and privacy, or on distant “existential” risks (e.g., the possibility of human extinction or an irreversible global catastrophe). Our focus is different. Following the work of consumer researchers who have started to identify psychological tensions in the consumer experience of AI (Puntoni et al. 2021), we contribute to this nascent literature by exploring how AI can reduce the range of people’s expression and choices, as well as the opportunities available to them for personal development. In other words, our intent is to delineate how consumers’ possibility spaces are increasingly shaped by algorithms. This approach is aligned with industry calls to understand how “customers face an array of new devices with which to interact with firms, fundamentally altering the purchase experience” (Marketing Science Institute 2018, p.4)