ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING AND MARKETING: FORECASTING CONSUMER PREFERENCES

Abstract

AI has rapidly advanced in recent years and is changing the landscape of social media and marketing, with unprecedented opportunities to predict and influence consumer preferences. The paper discusses the potential to lever AI based technologies to advance how brands leverage digital marketing. It role of AI enables brands to analyze data about consumer behaviour, engagement, and interaction through different social media platforms to provide relevant and personalized advertising. Research highlights a mixed-methods design, undertaking a comprehensive evaluation of the existing research paper in social media engagement and marketing and a quantitative survey of 250 active social media users. The key findings from the mixed-methods research are that AI personalization leads to increases in consumer engagement, brand memory and recall, and ultimately increases consumer purchase intentions. The findings additionally validated that AI predictive targeting gives marketers the ability to optimize campaign content with real time alignment to consumer needs and wants. However, the paper also revealed potential caveats such as algorithmic bias, data privacy, and limitations on consumer autonomy, and ethical implications that could hinder the effectiveness of AI technologies. These limitations highlight the need to demonstrate responsible and accountable application of AI technologies into advertising and marketing. The results support the conclusion that while AI provides more accurate consumer predictions and efficient marketing strategies, the longer term success depends upon data governance and trust from consumers. This research adds to the increasing conversation around digital marketing by providing theoretical understanding and practical recommendations in respect to the careful application of AI in social media publicity and publicity strategies. Further studies may wish to investigate a cross cultural understanding and industry-specific applications of AI in shaping consumer behaviour.