Paper Type

Complete

Paper Number

PACIS2026-1687

Description

E-commerce platforms increasingly adopt AI-generated summaries (AIGS) to mitigate information overload by presenting core information extracted from online reviews. While AIGS is perceived as a promising application to facilitate consumers’ decision making, how AIGS influences online reviews in the presence of controversial information remains a complex and unresolved question. Utilizing a dataset of women’s sweaters on Amazon, we employ coarsened exact matching and a difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of AIGS on subsequent review ratings and volume, and the moderating role of controversy. The analysis results indicate that AIGS significantly increase subsequent review volume but do not exert a significant influence on review ratings. Controversial information negatively moderates the impact on review ratings while positively moderating the impact on review volume. The findings suggest that e-commerce platforms can leverage AIGS to enhance user engagement while strategically managing controversial information to balance increased engagement with the preservation of product reputation.

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07-Platform

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Jul 5th, 12:00 AM

Amplifying or Muting? How Controversy Moderates the Influence of AI-Generated Review Summaries

E-commerce platforms increasingly adopt AI-generated summaries (AIGS) to mitigate information overload by presenting core information extracted from online reviews. While AIGS is perceived as a promising application to facilitate consumers’ decision making, how AIGS influences online reviews in the presence of controversial information remains a complex and unresolved question. Utilizing a dataset of women’s sweaters on Amazon, we employ coarsened exact matching and a difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of AIGS on subsequent review ratings and volume, and the moderating role of controversy. The analysis results indicate that AIGS significantly increase subsequent review volume but do not exert a significant influence on review ratings. Controversial information negatively moderates the impact on review ratings while positively moderating the impact on review volume. The findings suggest that e-commerce platforms can leverage AIGS to enhance user engagement while strategically managing controversial information to balance increased engagement with the preservation of product reputation.