Abstract
This special issue of the Journal of Marketing Education seeks to catalyze research conversations about the influence and impact of Artificial Intelligence on the practice of marketing education.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a revolutionary and transformative technological advancement where computing software is able to mimic the human ability to think, feel, and do (Haenlein, Huang & Kaplan, 2022). AI is increasingly influencing the way we interact, consume, and learn. As this subsequently influences how we think, behave, and live, questions regarding the ethics of the use of AI become urgently apparent.
The discipline of marketing has much to gain from the study of AI in both professional and pedagogical practice (Ferrell & Ferrell, 2020; Davenport, Guha, Grewal, & Bressgott, 2017). For marketing educators, AI thus presents two critical avenues of impact.
Professionally: AI is gaining traction rapidly in the field of professional marketing as a powerful tool for businesses to enhance customer relationships and experiences, optimize marketing strategies, predict consumer behavior and needs, augment customer service, and drive revenue growth. Artificial agents can be given information about customers and competitors to then recommend or even take marketing action (Overgoor, 2019; Vlačić, Corbo, Silva & Dabić, 2021). It is, as always, imperative for marketing educators to stay abreast of professional practice to prepare future marketing professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills. Along these lines, this special issue invites papers related to the teaching of:
Natural language processing in marketing
AI-driven content creation and personalization
AI-powered customer relationship management
AI-driven segmentation and targeting strategies
AI-based analytics and performance measurement
Ethical considerations in AI-powered marketing
Pedagogically: AI is having a cataclysmic impact on the field of education (Mollick & Mollick, 2022). In an industry so impacted by digital disruption (Crittenden & Peterson, 2019), it is incumbent on educators to embrace the influence of AI in the classroom. Initially, educators might simply be concerned with anticipating students using AI to cheat or plagiarize, but the opportunities far outweigh the risks. Educators can leverage AI for student learning activities and to enhance in-class lectures with examples and details, as well as to reduce faculty workload by helping with content generation and lesson planning. In fact, arguably, AI’s ability to personalize learning may fundamentally change the entire role and fabric of business schools. To this end, this special issue also invites papers related to:
Integrating AI into the marketing curriculum
Tools and technologies to aid in course design, course planning, class preparation, and pedagogy
Student cheating and plagiarism
Ethical considerations in AI-powered education
Personalization of instruction and feedback
Automation of teaching tasks
AI’s impact on the future of business schools
Potential contributors may contact the co-editors with any questions. Manuscripts will be judged based on scholarly merit and overall ability to advance marketing and business educational scholarship. The style guidelines found at journals.sagepub.com/home/jmd should be followed, with submissions submitted via the Journal of Marketing Education editorial manager website. The following are the special issue co-editors: