Session Link: https://youtu.be/kvMPtmKZH3Q

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Session Title: The AI Trap

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Speaker: Dr. Abhinandan Kulal, Research Professor, Government First Grade College

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Session description: Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed digital commerce by embedding persuasive design features that shape consumer behavior. This study investigates how AI-driven personalization, nudging, social influence, hedonic experience, and conversational tools contribute to addictive and impulse-compulsive buying behaviors, particularly among women in India. Leveraging the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework and Dual- Process Theory, the research explores a mediated moderated moderation model. It positions addictive AI-driven shopping behavior as a mediator between persuasive design and impulse buying, with psychological vulnerability and platform engagement acting as moderators.
  Digital financial literacy is tested as a higher-order moderator buffering these effects. A survey of 575 female online shoppers was conducted using validated Likert-scale instruments, and the data were analyzed using PROCESS Macro in SPSS. The results demonstrate that AI persuasive mechanisms significantly drive addictive behaviors, which in turn lead to impulse-compulsive purchases. These effects are intensified by psychological vulnerability and platform engagement but attenuated by high digital financial literacy. The study contributes to the literature on algorithmic consumer influence, behavioral addiction, and financial resilience, offering ethical and design implications for AI systems in retail platforms. It calls for responsible AI practices, enhanced consumer education, and policy interventions to safeguard digital autonomy in an increasingly AI-mediated shopping environment.

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Bio: Dr. Abhinandan Kulal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Commerce at Government First Grade College, Siddakatte, India. With a strong academic background in commerce and business studies, Dr. Kulal has contributed to research in areas such as financial behavior, ethical practices in academia, and digital commerce. He is committed to promoting academic integrity and has actively participated in curriculum development and student mentoring. His scholarly work emphasizes the intersection of ethics, education policy, and digital transformation in commerce education.