Ethics, Consumer Trust, and Legal Accountability in AI-Driven Marketing

Abstract

This chapter examines the ethical and legal accountability dimensions of artificial intelligence-driven marketing through a cross-sectoral lens, extending the regulatory compliance architecture developed elsewhere in this volume into the domains of consumer trust formation, viral and social media marketing, corporate social responsibility, and Islamic finance-adjacent marketing communications. Whereas regulatory compliance establishes the legal floor beneath which marketing conduct may not fall, ethical accountability establishes the aspirational ceiling toward which responsible organizations should strive, and this chapter argues that privacy-first generative AI marketing practice can only be considered mature when it is anchored in both. Drawing on empirical research examining viral marketing's effect on brand equity in Egypt's home appliances sector, arbitration and dispute resolution in Islamic banking, sukuk financing and poverty reduction across ASEAN economies