Smart choices, green voices: The role of AI and social influence in eco-friendly online shopping

Consumers increasingly encounter sustainability messages not only through traditional advertising, but through interactive, AI-mediated interfaces on social platforms and e-commerce sites. Recent evidence suggests that green communication on social media can meaningfully shape green attitudes and behavioral intentions, yet the mechanisms by which AI chatbots amplify (or weaken) green marketing communication remain under-specified, particularly for high-impact categories such as smart home and consumer electronics. Grounded in the stimulus, organism-response framework, this study examines how green marketing communication transmitted via AI chatbots influences consumers' chatbot-influenced buying intention, and tests two complementary organismic pathways: eco-ad attention on social media and smart consumer social value. The model further evaluates whether consumer attitude toward AI decision-making strengthens these indirect effects. The study draws on an in-person survey of adult consumers in major Chinese cities (N = 489) and analyses the measurement and structural models using PLS-SEM. Results indicate that green marketing communication predicts chatbot-influenced buying intention both directly and indirectly through heightened eco-ad attention on social media and smart consumer social value, with the indirect effects becoming stronger among consumers who hold more favorable attitudes toward AI decision-making. The findings contribute by integrating green communication research with the rapidly expanding literature on AI chatbots as persuasive and recommendation agents, responding to calls to better explain when AI-enabled marketing interfaces build trust and translate sustainability messaging into consumer intentions.