From Compliance to Communication: How Explainable AIGC Disclosure Shapes Consumer Responses in E-Commerce

Given the increasing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content (AIGC), regulatory authorities have begun requiring firms to disclose their involvement with AI to enhance transparency and prevent deception. However, emerging evidence suggests that general disclosures of AI involvement may unintentionally undermine consumer trust and reduce purchase intentions. This study examines whether and how scope-based AIGC disclosure can mitigate these adverse effects in e-commerce contexts. Drawing on cue utilization theory, we conceptualize the scope-based AIGC disclosure as an information cue that clarifies which part of the content was created by AI. We propose that scope-based AIGC disclosure shape consumer responses through two parallel mechanisms: perceived diagnosticity and perceived seller effort. We plan to conduct a lab experiment to test these arguments. This study contributes to AI transparency and explainability research by shifting attention from whether firms disclose AI use to how disclosure is designed in digital commerce.