How Artificial Intelligence Facilitates Sustainable Food Consumption: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Usefulness and Trust

Background As climate concerns intensify and artificial intelligence transforms retail experiences, understanding how AI tools influence sustainable consumption decisions has become increasingly critical. This study investigates how AI-assisted shopping affects consumer purchase intentions for plant-based proteins—a key lever for dietary sustainability—by examining the mediating roles of perceived usefulness and trust in AI technology. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model, we propose that AI usage and environmental concern influence purchase intentions through dual cognitive and affective pathways. Method We test this framework using survey data from 519 Amazon customers in the United States, analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. The measurement model demonstrates excellent psychometric properties, with all constructs exceeding recommended thresholds for reliability and validity. Results The study reveals that both AI usage and environmental concern significantly enhance perceived usefulness of AI for sustainability decisions and trust in AI recommendations, which subsequently drive plant-based protein purchase intentions. The effects operate entirely through these mediating mechanisms, with perceived usefulness showing stronger influence than trust. The model explains 22.4% of variance in purchase intentions, indicating substantial explanatory power for behavioral research. These findings advance theoretical understanding of AI-mediated sustainable consumption while offering practical guidance for e-commerce platforms and marketers. Conclusions The study demonstrates that digital technologies can facilitate environmental behavior change when consumers perceive them as both useful for achieving sustainability goals and trustworthy in their recommendations, particularly among environmentally conscious consumers.