Ethical AI Marketing and Cross-Generational Legitimacy. A Service-Dominant and Institutional Perspective on Millennials, Gen Z, and Zillennials

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now widely embedded in digital marketing practices, shaping how personalisation, targeting, and automated communication are experienced in everyday digital interactions. This study conceptualises Ethical AI Marketing as a value co-creation and legitimacy-seeking process, integrating Service-Dominant Logic and Institutional Theory. Using semi-structured interviews with Millennials and Generation Z participants, with Zillennials emerging as a cross-generational cluster during analysis, data were analysed through thematic coding following Gibbs (2007). Findings reveal differentiated legitimacy logics: Millennials emphasise pragmatic legitimacy, whereas Generation Z foregrounds moral legitimacy. The study contributes to Ethical AI Marketing scholarship by framing AI legitimacy as generationally mediated and institutionally embedded within digital service ecosystems.