Artificial Intelligence Research in Social Media Marketing: A Review, Synthesis and Research Avenues

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how businesses use social media for marketing by making it more personalized, efficient, and data-driven. Its expanding role in Social Media Marketing (SMM) emphasizes the critical need for this systematic literature review (SLR) to uncover its evolving impact and potential. This study synthesizes findings from research articles onAIusage in social media marketing, where 89 articles were identified systematically and extracted from Scopus-based literature. This review highlighted the evolution of research in the domain using the SPAR-4-SLR methodology. Guided by the TCCM (Theory, Context, Characteristics, Methodology) and Antecedents-Decisions-Outcomes (ADO) frameworks, the study explores what drives AI use in SMM, how decisions are shaped, and the resulting various outcomes. The findings show that AI strengthens various aspects of SMM, particularly customer targeting, personalization, engagement, and campaign effectiveness, while introducing challenges related to trust, privacy concerns, and ethical use of AI technologies. This review provides useful insights for academics and practitioners by describing how artificial intelligence used in SMM impacts consumer behavior. It emphasizes the need for further cross-cultural, industry-specific, and advanced methodological research to support responsible and effective AI in SMM initiatives.