Delegating Consumer Choice to AI: Implications for Product Evaluation and Willingness to Pay

From a marketing perspective, the use of AI to optimise management processes is already a common part of business practice. However, the integration of AI into consumer decision-making processes remains unexplored, particularly regarding customer responses to delegated choice. The main research question was: what is the impact of delegating consumer choice on product perception and customer willingness to pay? The study assumes that the perceived value of AI-supported decision-making varies across purchasing situations and product categories. The hypotheses were tested using the SPSS software interface, employing statistical tests suitable for ordinal and repeated-measures data analysis. The input data was drawn from a questionnaire survey conducted between January and March 2026 on a sample of 420 respondents belonging to Generation Z in the Czech Republic. The results of the research indicate that delegating consumer choice to AI is generally perceived positively by consumers, particularly in the context of tangible products. The findings further show that the effectiveness of AI-based delegated decision-making depends on the type of purchase situation. Willingness to pay more for products recommended by AI differs across product categories and is significantly higher in cases characterised by a rational approach to decision-making and higher investment intensity. These results suggest that the perceived value of AI-supported decision-making is context-dependent, which has important implications for the application of AI in algorithmic recommendation marketing.