How Algorithms Constrain Consumer Experience
Abstract
Prior literature is yet to explain how algorithms systematically constrain consumer experience (CX). To address this issue, we conducted a multi-method ethnographic study of consumers using fitness tracking software. We draw on the information science literature to demonstrate that the constitutive properties of information technology (IT) that underlie algorithms result in a set of restrictive fundamental interactional mechanisms imposed through algorithmic logics of legibility (what is selectively registered as input), visibility (what is selectively represented in output), and legitimacy (normative commitments embedded in input and output choices). We find that these mechanisms systematically constrain the distinct dimensions of the CX construct by eliciting consumption work. Consumers perform cognitive work to think through algorithmic limitations, practical work to accommodate those limitations, relational work to clarify algorithmic misrepresentation, and affective work to deal with algorithmic delegitimization. We make two contributions. First, our emergent framework not only demonstrates how algorithms systematically constrain CX, but is also more broadly relevant to consumer research because it enables accounting for the agency of IT. Second, we provide a corrective to the passive, emotion focused, view of CX by demonstrating how the consumption work of accommodating algorithmic limitations constrains the distinct dimensions of the CX construct.
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Marketing science has documented the transformation of service systems through analytics and automation but has not fully theorized what happens when intelligent systems actively constrain legibility, visibility, and legitimacy in ways that structure consumer choice environments.
“Similarly, marketing science has documented the transformation of service systems through analytics and automation (Rust & Huang, 2014) but has not fully theorized what happens when intelligent systems actively constrain legibility, visibility, and legitimacy in ways that structure consumer choice environments (Kaliyamurthy & Schau, 2025).”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Kaliyamurthy & Schau, 2025
Algorithmic systems impose interactional logics of legibility, visibility, and legitimacy, selectively registering certain inputs, representing certain outputs, and embedding normative commitments into both.
“Kaliyamurthy and Schau (2025) demonstrate that algorithmic systems impose interactional logics of legibility, visibility, and legitimacy, selectively registering certain inputs, representing certain outputs, and embedding normative commitments into both.”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Kaliyamurthy and Schau (2025)
AI systems do not merely assist decisions; they structure what is recognized, surfaced, and normatively validated within consumption episodes.
“we argue that AI systems do not merely assist decisions.They structure what is recognized, surfaced, and normatively validated within consumption episodes.”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Kaliyamurthy & Schau, 2025
Consumer-AI symbiosis is neither frictionless nor neutral; it is structured by the logics embedded in the systems themselves.
“Consistent with emerging evidence that consumers must perform cognitive, practical, relational, and affective work to accommodate algorithmic limitations (Kaliyamurthy & Schau, 2025), symbiosis is neither frictionless nor neutral.It is structured by the logics embedded in the systems themselves.”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Kaliyamurthy & Schau, 2025
Algorithms systematically constrain consumer experience.
“Recent work has begun to move beyond optimization logics to show that algorithms systematically constrain consumer experience.”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Kaliyamurthy and Schau (2025)
Cites
Consumers and artificial intelligence: An experiential perspective
Puntoni, S., Reczek, R. W., Giesler, M., & Botti, S. (2021) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1177/0022242920953847 · Cited by 1,193 · see citing works
Thompson, C. J. (1997) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.1177/002224379703400403 · Cited by 1,142 · see citing works
Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach
Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P. (2018) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1093/jcr/ucx105 · Cited by 668 · see citing works
Understanding, explaining, and utilizing medical artificial intelligence
Cadario, R., Longoni, C., & Morewedge, C. K. (2021) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01146-0 · Cited by 342 · see citing works
Novak, T. P., & Hoffman, D. L. (2019) · Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · doi:10.1007/s11747-018-0608-3 · Cited by 332 · see citing works
N. Bolton, R., Gustafsson, A., McColl-Kennedy, J., J. Sirianni, N., & K. Tse, D. (2014) · Journal of Service Management · doi:10.1108/josm-01-2014-0034 · Cited by 312 · see citing works
How Artificial Intelligence Constrains the Human Experience
Valenzuela, A., Puntoni, S., Hoffman, D., Castelo, N., De Freitas, J., Dietvorst, B., Hildebrand, C., Huh, Y. E., Meyer, R., Sweeney, M. E., et al. (2024) · Journal of the Association for Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/730709 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
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Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era
Sands, S., & Campbell, C. (2026) · Journal of Global Marketing · doi:10.1080/08911762.2026.2697021
“In line with work showing how algorithms constrain consumer experience through logics of legibility, visibility, and legitimacy (Kaliyamurthy & Schau, 2025), we argue that AI systems do not merely assist decisions.”
Influential
- Authors
- Kaliyamurthy, A. K., & Schau, H. J.
- Affiliations
- Oregon State University (US)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kaliyamurthy, Ashok Kumar
- ORCID
- Schau, Hope Jensen
- Venue
- Journal of Consumer Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2025-03-31
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 826-847
- ISSN
- 0093-5301 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5277
- OpenAlex
- W4409019095
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 4
- FWCI
- 5.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Consumer Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Keywords
- algorithms, customer experience, algorithmic visibility, algorithmic legitimacy, delegitimization
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