Journal of African Development

The high integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in retail has reshaped the way companies communicate with customers in the form of highly personalized results. Whereas the operational and marketing advantages of AI-enabled personalization have been highlighted in previous research, little has been done so far to gain insight into the psychological processes that define consumer reactions. To fill this gap, this paper suggests a theory-based framework that considers how AI-based personalization affects the consumer intentions to behave in a way by means of trust and perceived control. This paper will use the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, and the trust theory as the theoretical framework to conceptualize the process of AI personalization as a stimulus that can influence internal cognitive and emotional state (trust and perceived control), and subsequently consumer purchase intentions. The research design is conceptual and has been justified with the wide range of reviews of the previous literature in AI, retailing and consumer behavior. The systematic framework is built to describe the role of personalized recommendations, targeted advertisements, and interactions based on AI in consumer engagement and decision-making. These results indicate that even though the concept of AI-based personalization improves consumer experience and involvement, the effectiveness of this technology is deeply dependent on the levels of trust and the sense of control over data utilization. The research adds to the theory by bringing together various frameworks into a single model and presents practical implications of how retailers can shape ethical, transparent, and consumer-focused AI strategies...