Managerial Decisions in Marketing: The Individual Perception of Explainable Artificial Intelligence

This paper examines how marketing managers` perceived explanation quality differs between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human recommendations. The results of this experimental study extend previous studies on managerial decisions by demonstrating that participants’ perception of the explanation quality differed between AI and humans. The explanation behind human advice was perceived as less satisfying, needing more information about the recommendation. In contrast, receiving an AI generated advice positively changed their perception of the explanation quality. They perceived the explanation as more sufficient without the need for further clarification. These findings contribute to understand the individual perception of the explanation quality of AI generated recommendations. Including explainability of AI in the decision process is important for building user trust. Thus, this paper is intended to stimulate further research on the use of AI for managerial deci-sions in marketing. Particularly, examining the importance of explanations in the decision process to improve AI acceptance.