Language as Means and Ends: How Generative Artificial Intelligence Automates, Amplifies, and Reinvents Language in Marketing

作者：M. Reimann, A. Kronrod · 发表于：Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1086/740067 · 被引用次数：1

Is language a means or an end in marketing? In other words, is it merely a tool to achieve certain goals, or is language itself part of what creates value for consumers and fi rms? These questions become newly urgent in the age of generative arti fi cial intelligence (AI), especially the age of large language models. Drawing from interviews with senior marketing professionals across diverse industries, this industry-perspectives article adopts a translational approach. We surface how practitioners conceptualize the role of language in their day-to-day work and carry those insights back into the academic discourse. We further identify two recurring perspectives — language as a strategic tool (means) and language as a value generator in itself (ends) — and examine how generative AI bridges these two perspectives. To that end, we develop a conceptual framework and propositions organized around three AI-enabled functions — automation, ampli fi cation, and reinvention — and map each function onto the means – ends distinction.