Can ethics be assembled? Consumer ethics in the age of artificial intelligence and smart objects

Abstract

AI-enabled smart objects have rapidly become everyday commodities and do not only change the ways in which we consume but also the ethics that guide our consumption. Emerging sociomaterial perspectives viewing consumers and smart objects as assemblages have been employed to study relational aspects of consumption, as well as consumer experience in the digital reality. This article argues that consumer ethics could and should be viewed as emergent properties of such consumption assemblages. Drawing on exemplars ranging from wearables to autonomous robots, this article illustrates the potential of this perspective and outlines fruitful directions for future research on questions of consumer agency and self-determination in the face of AI and the fluidity of consumer ethics in a world of updatable smart objects.