Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Innovation for Online Marketing: A Qualitative Synthesis and Conceptual Framework

The hyper-personalization, real-time optimization, and data-driven decision-making are the main aspects of online marketing that are swiftly being altered by artificial intelligence (AI). Meanwhile, companies are increasingly under pressure to match the marketing strategies to the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article creates a doctoral qualitative synthesis of the newly emerged literature in the field of AI, sustainable innovations and online marketing. Based on the interpretive review of peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, and conceptual works on AI in digital marketing, sustainable marketing and digital sustainability, the study is themed to discover how AI capabilities contribute or suppress sustainable innovation in online marketing. It identifies four key themes: (i) AI-enabled efficiency and dematerialization, which avoid resource consumption and waste in online campaigns; (ii) AI-driven sustainable consumer engagement, where personalization, suggestions, and social/mobile analytics can encourage greener behaviors; (iii) AI as an enablers to sustainable business model innovation, particularly circular economy, sharing, and product-as-a-service models that can be delivered online; and (iv) risks, tensions, and governance concerns, such as energy-intensive AI infrastructures, data ethics, surveillance marketing, algorithmic The paper based on these themes presents a conceptual framework, namely, the AI-Sustainable Innovation in Online Marketing (AISOM) framework, that incorporates the viewpoints of the trio bottom line, digital-sustainability ecosystems, and dynamic capabilities. The research study has value as (i) it synthesizes the existing piecemeal knowledge on AI and sustainable marketing; (ii) it best explains how AI capabilities generate, convey, and capture sustainable value in online marketing; and (iii) it defines a research agenda of responsible and sustainable-by-design AI marketing systems. Managerial implications are provided to marketers, platform owners, and SMEs interested in using AI to achieve sustainability in the digitization of AI in digital markets, and policy guidance to regulators seeking to address ethical and responsible AI implementation in digital markets.