The Human Behind the Image: Consumer Interpretations of AI-Generated Fashion Advertising and Brand-Consumer Relationships

Sammanfattning

This study examines how consumers make sense of AI-generated fashion advertising and how this shapes brand-consumer relationships. Using a qualitative and interpretive approach, this study draws on twelve semi-structured interviews with students at Lund University School of Economics and Management (LUSEM). The analysis is informed by Consumer–Brand Relationship theory (Fournier, 1998), Social Presence Theory (Short et al., 1976), and Perception Theory (Solomon, 2018). Photo-elicitation using images from H&M's digital twin campaign was incorporated into the interview process. The findings suggest that consumers do not perceive AI-generated advertising as a purely technical or production-related choice. Instead, AI is interpreted as a signal that communicates the brand's intent, effort, and commitment to the relationship with the consumers. Three interconnected dimensions shape this interpretive process: trust is influenced by prior familiarity with the brand and varies across brand tiers; sincerity is assessed through perceptions of brand intent and transparency; and perceived effort reflects the extent to which consumers believe a brand has invested in its communication and relationship-building activities. Across these dimensions, a deeper concern relates to the role of human presence in brand communication. Participants consistently distinguished between AI used to enhance human production and AI used to replace it entirely. The study proposes two key contributions. First, it introduces the concept of the human presence paradigm, which captures consumers' tendency to evaluate AI-generated content based on the presence or absence of a human involvement rather than on visual quality alone. Second, it highlights a post-communication verification stage, in which consumers rely on additional sources such as customer reviews, product information, and physical product experiences to validate claims communicated through brand imagery. Together, these findings offer a deeper understanding of how brand–consumer relationships are negotiated in an increasingly AI-mediated communication landscape.