2022, Vol. 64(1) 38–68
https://doi.org/10.1177/14707853211018428
International Journal of
Market Research
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14707853211018428
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Artificial intelligence in marketing:
A systematic literature review
Srikrishna Chintalapati
and Shivendra Kumar Pandey
Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, India
Abstract
The digital transformation fostered by the increasing leverage of artificial intelligence (AI) has been
a critical influencing factor unleashing the next wave of enterprise business disruption. Marketing is
one of the business streams witnessing this transformation on a very intense scale. Contemporary
marketing has begun to experiment with modern, cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, deploying
them in mainstream operations to ensure accelerated success. This article explores the use of
AI in marketing as an emergent stream of research. Based on inferences from earlier studies, the
study categorizes marketing into five distinct functional themes—integrated digital marketing,
content marketing, experiential marketing, marketing operations, and market research—and 19
sub-functional themes (activity levers). Across the chosen themes and sub-themes, the study
further dovetails into and identifies 170 featured use cases of the extant literature, where AI
is leveraged by marketing in delivering superior quality outcomes and experiences. By way of a
systematic literature review (SLR), the article evaluates 57 qualifying publications in the context
of AI-powered marketing and qualitatively and quantitatively ranks them based on their coverage,
impact, relevance, and contributed guidance, and elucidates the findings across various sectors,
research contexts, and scenarios. The study discusses the practitioner and academic research
implications and proposes a future research agenda to study the continuous transformation
fostered by accelerated adoption of AI across the marketing landscape.
Keywords
artificial intelligence, consumer behavior, content marketing, experiential marketing, integrated
digital marketing, market research, marketing operations
Introduction
Contemporary marketing is increasingly data driven, automated, and intelligent. The highly
focussed approach of new-age marketing has had a direct influence on marketing outcomes
(Kumar et al., 2019; Paschen et al., 2019). Technological advancements have consistently
Corresponding author:
Srikrishna Chintalapati, Department of Marketing and Strategy, Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, City Southern
Bypass, Sunaria, Rohtak 124010, Haryana, India.
Email: srikrishnac16@iimb.ac.in
1018428MRE 0 0 10.1177/14707853211018428International Journal of Market ResearchChintalapati and Pandey
research-article 2021
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