AI Influencers and Consumer Well‐Being: The Roles of Parasocial Interaction, Trust and Authenticity

Abstract

Despite the rapid rise of AI‐driven virtual influencers in global marketing, there is limited understanding of how trust in these nonhuman agents impacts consumer well‐being across diverse cultural settings. This study addresses this gap by establishing trust in AI influencers as the central driver of consumer well‐being and examining how this relationship is shaped by core psychological mechanisms and moderated by cultural context. A mixed method design was adopted, combining a fuzzy Delphi expert study and in‐depth consumer interviews with a cross‐national survey of 3157 participants from the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. Measurement invariance, partial least squares structural equation modelling and multigroup analyses were applied to test the direct, indirect and moderated pathways, with individual‐level cultural orientation examined within and across these national contexts. The results confirm that trust exerts both direct and indirect effects on consumer well‐being through authenticity, parasocial bonds and persuasion knowledge model. Cultural orientation and digital literacy significantly moderate these effects, whereas persona realism shows an uncanny valley pattern. Trust emerged as the strongest predictor of well‐being, explaining nearly half of the variance across contexts. Marketers can build sustainable trust in AI influencers by prioritising transparent disclosure, coherent storytelling and ethical personalisation. Additionally, cultural sensitivity and audience literacy levels must be considered when designing effective AI influencer strategies. Regulators can use these insights to establish ethical guidelines that safeguard consumer autonomy. This research empirically assesses a sociotechnical model of trust in AI influencers across multiple countries. By integrating psychological and cultural mechanisms, it extends persuasion and authenticity theories into the nonhuman domain, offering both theoretical advances and actionable insights for global marketing practice.