AI-Driven Marketing and Customer Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Customer Experience

Abstract

This study examined the associations of AI-powered personalization, chatbot service quality, and recommendation system effectiveness with customer loyalty, emphasizing the mediating role of customer experience. A quantitative, cross-sectional online survey was used to examine consumers in the United Kingdom who had interacted with AI-enabled digital marketing services. A five-construct model was examined using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The reported findings indicated that all three marketing practices were positively associated with customer experience and loyalty; customer experience was positively associated with loyalty and mediated the three practice–loyalty relationships. Cross-sectional self-report measures and online recruitment restrict causal inference and population generalizability. Firms may strengthen retention-oriented relationships by improving relevance, conversational support, and recommendation usefulness, while monitoring privacy and customer autonomy. Integrating three distinct AI-enabled touchpoints within a stimulus–organism–response model specifies customer experience as a potential explanatory mechanism rather than treating AI adoption as an undifferentiated practice.

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