Generative AI in Global Marketing: Decision-Making Versus Analysis Across International Governance Contexts

Generative AI is transforming global marketing by enabling multinational firms to run cross-border marketing at scale, powering AI-generated content, automated customer interactions, personalised campaigns, and dynamic pricing. Yet firms must deploy these strategies across diverse regulatory landscapes. Using the European Union as a regulatory laboratory whose model diffuses globally through the Brussels Effect, a comparative content analysis of the National AI Agendas of all Member States reveals the AI Governance Maturity Model, distinguishing Analytical AI (insight and forecasting that support marketing judgment) from Decisional AI (generative systems embedded directly in marketing operations). Three governance clusters (AI Pioneers, AI Adopters, and AI Followers) form a contextual matrix of opportunities and constraints for multinational firms’ strategy. Findings suggest that governance maturity may serve as a strategic institutional enabler of trustworthy, scalable adoption of generative AI.