The Other Side of Sustainability 4.0: How Sustainability Is Operationalized Through Artificial Intelligence Driven Branding Processes : The Rise of Algorithmic Sustainability Paradox

Sammanfattning

This study examines how sustainability is operationalized through AI-driven branding processes within organizations. As sustainability becomes increasingly institutionalized and communicated digitally, artificial intelligence increasingly shapes how sustainability narratives are created, personalized, optimized, and legitimized within branding environments. Grounded in a relativist ontology and primarily interpretivist epistemology, while informed by pragmatist considerations, the study adopts a qualitative abductive approach based on semi-structured interviews with professionals involved in branding, marketing, and sustainability-related practices. The empirical material was analysed through a theory-informed thematic analysis guided by the Algorithmic Sustainability Paradox Framework. The findings suggest that sustainability is increasingly operationalized as a communicative output embedded within AI-driven branding infrastructures, where branding actively shapes how sustainability is interpreted and communicated rather than merely representing it. Simultaneously, AI-driven systems function as communicative infrastructures that enhance visibility, scalability, and engagement, while also intensifying tensions between symbolic sustainability communication and substantive sustainability practices. The study identifies how algorithmic branding processes may facilitate forms of algorithmic greenwashing, where sustainability legitimacy can be amplified without corresponding socio-ecological transformation. The thesis contributes theoretically by conceptualizing the Algorithmic Sustainability Paradox, suggesting that the more sustainability is optimized, personalized, and emotionally amplified through AI-mediated branding, the easier it becomes for organizations to simulate sustainability legitimacy without necessarily achieving substantive sustainability outcomes.