Journal of Promotion Management

Generative AI and Green Influencer Promotion: Consumer Engagement, Brand Communication, and Responsible Marketing Practice

The Special Issue titled “Generative AI and Green Influencer Promotion: Consumer Engagement, Brand Communication, and Responsible Marketing Practice” aims to examine how generative AI is reshaping green influencer marketing across message design, content production, personalization, disclosure, campaign evaluation, and governance.

Generative AI is becoming central to marketing content creation and customer communication, while consumer interactions with AI raise experiential, social, ethical, and managerial questions that go beyond efficiency alone. This Special Issue responds to these developments by focusing on the intersection of generative AI, green influencer promotion, sustainability communication, consumer engagement, and responsible marketing practice.

The Special Issue invites conceptual, empirical, experimental, cross-cultural, computational, review-based, and managerial contributions that investigate AI-generated and AI-assisted green influencer content, virtual and human green influencers, human-AI co-created sustainability communication, AI-enabled storytelling, source credibility, parasocial relationships, consumer engagement, AI disclosure, green skepticism, AI-enabled greenwashing, and responsible promotion management.

This Special Issue contributes to the Journal of Promotion Management by extending the journal’s established emphasis on digital promotion, online communication, influencer credibility, advertising effectiveness, consumer engagement, and brand response. Prior work in the journal has examined influencer credibility, parasocial interaction, brand engagement, and social media influencer attributes, and this Special Issue advances that conversation by asking how AI-generated and AI-assisted green influencer communication changes the meaning of credibility, authenticity, transparency, persuasion, and trust.

The issue is especially timely because brands, agencies, influencers, platforms, and sustainability-oriented organizations increasingly face practical decisions about when and how to use generative AI in green promotional campaigns. Key concerns include whether AI-generated content strengthens or weakens authenticity, how disclosure affects trust and persuasion knowledge, how virtual influencers compare with human influencers, and how greenwashing risks can be identified, mitigated, or amplified in AI-enabled communication.

Themes and topics of interest

This Special Issue seeks contributions that explore a broad spectrum of topics, including but not limited to:

1. AI-assisted and AI-generated sustainability promotion

• Message design, green storytelling, personalization, visuals, captions, and AI-enabled content creation.
• AI-supported creative production for sustainability-focused campaigns.
• Consumer responses to AI-generated sustainability messages.

1. Human, virtual, and hybrid green influencers

• Comparisons between human influencers, virtual influencers, and human-AI co-created influencer content.
• Influencer type, source credibility, perceived altruism, product-influencer fit, and promotional effectiveness.
• The role of virtual influencers in sustainable product endorsement and green brand communication.

1. Consumer trust, authenticity, and parasocial connection

• Credibility, social presence, source expertise, similarity, identification, and skepticism toward AI-generated green content.
• Consumer perceptions of authenticity in AI-assisted sustainability communication.
• Parasocial interaction and engagement with AI-enabled or virtual green influencers.

1. AI disclosure and persuasion knowledge

• Consumer responses to disclosure of AI involvement in content creation, editing, influencer representation, or message personalization.
• Effects of AI disclosure on trust, advertising value, credibility, persuasion knowledge, and purchase intention.
• Disclosure strategies for responsible green influencer promotion.

1. AI-enabled greenwashing and responsible promotion

• How generative AI may amplify, conceal, or mitigate misleading environmental claims.
• Ethical and managerial challenges in AI-generated sustainability communication.
• Governance, transparency, and accountability in AI-enabled green campaigns.

1. Consumer engagement and behavioral outcomes

• Environmental attitudes, pro-environmental behavioral intentions, purchase intentions, sharing behavior, brand advocacy, resistance, and avoidance.
• Engagement with AI-generated or AI-assisted green influencer content.
• Consumer skepticism, trust formation, and behavioral response in green promotional contexts.

1. Managerial and strategic implications

• Responsible generative AI adoption by brands, agencies, influencers, platforms, and sustainability-oriented organizations.
• Influencer selection, message design, campaign evaluation, and human-AI collaboration.
• Managerial frameworks for credible, transparent, and effective green influencer campaigns.

1. Theory development and methodological innovation

• Conceptual frameworks integrating generative AI, influencer promotion, green marketing, and responsible brand communication.
• Experimental, computational, cross-cultural, review-based, and mixed-method approaches.
• New models of AI-mediated credibility, authenticity, persuasion knowledge, green skepticism, and responsible promotion.