Timing of AI Disclosure in Promotional Video Advertising : An Experimental Study of Consumer Trust, Attitude and Scepticism

Sammanfattning

As generative artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into advertising production, questions surrounding transparency and consumer responses to AI disclosure have become more important. Prior research shows that AI disclosure can influence advertising evaluations, but existing studies have mainly examined disclosure as a present-or-absent condition, often in static advertising formats. Less attention has been given to whether the timing of disclosure matters, particularly in promotional video advertising where the message unfolds sequentially over time. This study examines how the timing of AI disclosure influences consumers’ trust, attitude and scepticism towards AI-generated promotional video content. Drawing on disclosure timing research, with the Persuasion Knowledge Model used as a supporting theoretical framework, the study compares three experimental conditions: no disclosure, pre-exposure disclosure and post-exposure disclosure. A between-subjects experiment was conducted with 239 participants, who were exposed to one version of an AI-generated promotional video before completing a structured questionnaire. The findings did not reveal statistically significant differences between the disclosure conditions for trust, attitude or scepticism. However, the descriptive results followed a consistent directional pattern, with pre-exposure disclosure associated with slightly lower trust and attitude and slightly higher scepticism than both no disclosure and post-exposure disclosure. Exploratory analyses further suggested that participants’ familiarity with generative AI and their broader attitudes towards AI-generated video content may be relevant contextual factors influencing consumer evaluations. The study contributes to AI disclosure research by conceptualising disclosure as a temporally positioned cue within promotional video advertising. It suggests that disclosure timing may be theoretically meaningful, but that timing alone may be insufficient to produce strong immediate effects on consumer evaluation.