International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12

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 Volume 13, Issue 7 (July 2026), Pages: 256-267

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 Original Research Paper

Generative AI in digital marketing and consumer trust: Examining the mediating role of perceived authenticity in Saudi Arabia

 Author(s): 

Mahmoud Mohamed Eldabet 1, 2, *, Abdallah Mohamed Eldabet 3, Sameh Abd-ElMaksoud Mohammad Aboul-Dahab 4, 5, Emad Abdel-Khalek Saber El-Tahan 2, 4

 Affiliation(s):

1College of Business, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2Department of Business Administration, Giza Higher Institute for Administrative Sciences, Giza, Egypt
3Institute of Public Administration, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
4College of Business, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
5Faculty of Commerce, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt

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 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1360-7410

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 
https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2026.07.024

 Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly entered digital marketing in Saudi Arabia, raising important questions about how machine-generated brand communication is processed by consumers. This study examines how generative AI use in digital marketing is associated with consumer trust among Saudi consumers, with perceived authenticity as the central mediating mechanism and purchase intention as the downstream outcome. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional design, data were collected from 322 digitally active Saudi consumers with prior exposure to AI-generated marketing content. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test seven hypotheses, including two mediation paths and two moderation effects. Generative AI usage was negatively associated with perceived authenticity (β = −0.152, p = 0.001); perceived authenticity strongly predicted consumer trust (β = 0.405, p < 0.001), which in turn predicted purchase intention (β = 0.370, p < 0.001). Perceived authenticity partially mediated the relationship between AI use and trust (indirect = −0.061, 95% CI [−0.104, −0.021]), while consumer trust partially mediated the relationship between authenticity and purchase intention (indirect = 0.149, 95% CI [0.092, 0.212]). The proposed moderating effects of digital literacy and consumer skepticism were not statistically supported. The study contributes evidence from an under-researched emerging market by positioning perceived authenticity as a key psychological mechanism through which AI marketing is linked to trust, while acknowledging the modest first-stage explanatory power and the associational nature of the cross-sectional design.

 © 2026 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

Generative AI, Perceived authenticity, Consumer trust, Purchase intention, Saudi Arabia

 Article history

Received 12 April 2026, Received in revised form 29 July 2026, Accepted 2 August 2026

 Acknowledgment

The authors thank the participants who completed the survey and the reviewers whose detailed feedback substantially improved this manuscript. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee. Informed consent was obtained from all individual respondents prior to participation, and the anonymity and confidentiality of responses were protected throughout the study. 

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

Eldabet MM, Eldabet AM, Aboul-Dahab SAEM, and El-Tahan EAKS (2026). Generative AI in digital marketing and consumer trust: Examining the mediating role of perceived authenticity in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 13(7): 256-267

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