From AI-Enabled Personalization to Online Impulse Buying: The Sequential Mediating Roles of AI Customer Experience and AI-Based Perceived Personalization

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key driver of personalized customer experience in e-commerce. However, limited research has explained how AI-enabled personalization influences online impulse buying through consumers' psychological processes, particularly in emerging markets. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework, this study examines the relationships among AI-enabled personalization experience, AI customer experience, AI-based perceived personalization, and online impulse buying. Data were collected from 366 Vietnamese online consumers and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that AI-enabled personalization experience significantly enhances five dimensions of AI customer experience: data capture, information classification, decision delegation, social interaction, and anthropomorphic experience. These dimensions positively influence AI-based perceived personalization, which, in turn, significantly increases online impulse buying. The findings also confirm the mediating role of AI-based perceived personalization in linking AI customer experience with impulsive purchasing behavior. This study extends the S–O–R framework by conceptualizing AI-enabled personalization experience as a multidimensional higher-order construct and provides empirical evidence from Vietnam's rapidly growing e-commerce market. The findings offer valuable insights for e-commerce firms seeking to improve AI-enabled personalization strategies and enhance customer engagement.