Ai and the Transformation of Communication Management: an Exploratory Study of Stakeholder Engagement and Value Co-creation

Abstract Book of the 9th World Conference on Social Sciences Studies

Year: 2026

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Ai and the Transformation of Communication Management: an Exploratory Study of Stakeholder Engagement and Value Co-creation

Prof Dr. Lida Holtzhausen

ABSTRACT:

In an era of rapid digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping communication processes that underpin stakeholder engagement and value co-creation within service ecosystems. Situated within communication management studies, this exploratory paper examines how AI-mediated communication influences the strategic management of stakeholder relationships in pursuit of sustainable service excellence. Drawing on a scoping review of interdisciplinary literature, the study explores how organisations facilitate dialogue, meaning-making, and relationship building in AI-enabled environments. AI-driven tools, including machine learning and natural language processing, enable more personalised and data-driven engagement, but also introduce challenges related to trust, ethics, transparency, and communicative agency. Anchored in service-dominant logic, the paper reconceptualises value as emerging through communicative interaction increasingly mediated by intelligent systems. As an early-stage study, it proposes a conceptual framework positioning AI as both a communicative actor and a strategic resource in communication management, and outlines an exploratory qualitative research agenda to investigate stakeholder experiences of co-creation in AI-mediated contexts.

Keywords: Cocreation-Creation; Communicative Agency; Digital Transformation; Ethics; Service Ecosystems