This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new study from Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business and the University of South Florida delivers a pointed warning to companies betting on AI to power their product design: The technology may make products more efficient, but it doesn't necessarily make consumers believe they are more sustainable.
In fact, it can do the opposite. The research is published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. "We looked specifically at product design and how people perceive AI and sustainability, and there was a clear belief among product designers that AI is not going to put the human touch and care behind designing a product like an actual human would," said Barbara Duffek, an assistant professor of marketing at Georgia State and co-author of the study.
After conducting controlled experiments, in-depth interviews with product designers and a live Meta advertising test, the researchers found a consistent and striking pattern: When consumers learn a product was designed by AI rather than by a human, they rate it as less sustainable. In one experiment, an identical backpack scored 4.27 out of 7 on perceived sustainability when described as human-designed, but only 3.61 when the exact same backpack was labeled "AI-designed." The product never changed. Only the story behind it did.
In a live A/B test running ads for a reusable cup, the researchers found that framing the product as "AI-designed" cut click-through rates and slashed engagement to a fraction of what the "human-designed" version generated. In a separate experiment, when people were offered a free toothbrush with sustainability specifically in mind, more than three-quarters chose the human-designed option over the AI-designed one—even though both toothbrushes were, again, identical. For companies pouring resources into AI-driven product development—and there are a lot of them, with AI increasingly used to optimize materials, cut waste and streamline manufacturing—this creates a genuine paradox.
The technology can make a product more sustainable in objective terms. But if the marketing highlights AI's role, it may inadvertently undercut consumer trust in exactly the claim the company is trying to make. "As we conducted our interviews to figure out why consumers trust AI-designed products less, it became clear that it's emotional, not technical.
We found that consumers perceive sustainability as inherently about love and care for the environment and society," said Duffek. Through interviews with senior product design executives, the team identified a concept they call "genuine care"—the sense that real love, intentionality and moral concern went into how a product was made. One executive put it bluntly: "Why would AI care if my product's sustainable like a human would?
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