Call for papers for a Special Issue of Psychology & Marketing
The Psychology of Agentic AI: Autonomy, Identity, and Human–Agent Symbiosis
Guest editors: Pitardi V, Heirati N, Wirtz J, & Jayawardhena C
Deadline: 31 July 2026
The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and service robots has prompted a profound response from premier marketing and service research scholars. While early academic discourse focused on AI adoption and efficiency, it has matured into a nuanced examination of psychological, emotional, and organizational consequences. Recent scholarship has largely centered on four themes: the psychological impact of human–technology interaction in a “feeling economy” (Huang and Rust, 2024); the unintended consequences of AI, such as dehumanization and well-being deterioration (de Freitas and Cohen, 2025; Heirati et al., 2025; Marriott and Pitardi, 2024); AI as an organizational engine for intelligent automation (Granulo et al. 2024); and, the ethical imperatives of safety and bias (Wirtz et al., 2023).
While existing themes define the current scholarly moment, there are critical gaps that constitute the next frontier of inquiry. Foremost among these is the rapid evolution from Generative AI to Agentic AI (Bornet et al., 2025). AI differs from other technological tools, exhibiting agency, acting autonomously, interacting with environment, and adapting its decisions without direct human intervention (Davenport and Bean, 2025; Wirtz and Stock-Homburg 2025). These agentic qualities alter how people perceive these technologies, make traditional adoption models insufficient, and make create new psychological consequences on consumers and frontline employees (Li et al., 2025). In particular, this technological shift necessitates research on Human–AI symbiosis that transcends the binary narrative of replacement versus augmentation and view agentic AI as an autonomous and adaptable actor capable of executing complex workflows and decision making. This perspective invites inquiry into new organizational forms where frontline employees collaborate as peers with agentic systems (Kunz, Sajtos and Flavián 2025) and act as “citizen developers” who train and refine them (Wirtz and Stock-Homburg 2025). Furthermore, it will address the paradigm shift of the “algorithmic customer,” where customers delegate search, negotiation, and purchasing to their own AI agents. Finally, the field requires a pivot from a defensive ethical stance focused on risk mitigation to a proactive agenda that leverages AI for societal and customer wellbeing, grounded in transparent governance and control across the AI agent life cycle.
In this special issue, we invite papers that advance theory on the psychological and marketing mechanisms through which Generative and Agentic AI reshape customer experiences, employee roles, and marketplace dynamics. We particularly welcome submissions that bridge foundational constructs in consumer psychology, such as autonomy, identity, trust, and cognitive appraisal, with emerging marketing phenomena driven by agentic AI. We invite authors to submit their conceptual, qualitative, and quantitative work, including lab and field experiments, longitudinal and archival analyses, digital trace and performance data, multimodal and conversational data, and ethnographic approaches. We particularly encourage multidisciplinary collaborations and research co developed with organizations that can provide access to real service operations, customer journeys, human and agent interaction logs, and implementation outcomes. Given the early stage of scholarship on Generative and Agentic AI in service contexts, this domain offers distinctive opportunities for novel theory building and high impact evidence.
Topics of interest for this call for papers include but are not restricted to:
– How does customer psychology change when AI tools transition from passive assistants (copilots) to proactive teammates that execute tasks autonomously?
– What’s the persuasive impact of hyper-personalized generated content (e.g., ads, sales emails, service scripts) that is dynamically created for a single customer in real-time? Does this create new forms of algorithmic vulnerability by eroding critical defenses?
– What is the optimal customer control (i.e., what customers can see, change, and override) to support trust without creating cognitive overload? How does repeated delegation affect customers’ self-efficacy and decision confidence over time?
– How do customers and employees respond to agents equipped with “large behavioral models” (LBMs) capable of sensing emotions and executing physical tasks with empathy?
– Individual Differences and Contextual Moderators: How do personality traits (e.g., need for cognition, technophobia), cultural background, age, or digital literacy moderate consumers’ responses to agentic AI?
– How must branding and persuasion theory adapt when the “buyer” is a rational, utility-maximizing agent rather than a human?
– How do humans manage their own AI agents? What personality, ethical, or brand preference parameters will they set?
– How does the role identity of frontline employees change when they are empowered to train and fine-tune service robots via no-code platforms?
– What are the cognitive and emotional demands on managers who must orchestrate cross-functional agentic teams rather than manage human subordinates? And how do these demands affect their sense of role identity, self-efficacy, and well-being?
– What are the new team structures, workflows, and management challenges for a hybrid Human–AI workforce? What new forms of technostress or role stress arise when your teammate or manager is an algorithm?
– Can agentic AI be designed to proactively nudge customers toward better financial, health, or sustainable choices, acting as a guardian rather than just a servant?
– How can service robots and AI be designed to reduce customer vulnerability? (e.g., as companions for the elderly, as financial literacy AI for low-income customers, as accessibility tools for customers with disabilities).
See the full CfP here.
Guest editors:
– Dr. Valentina Pitardi (University of Surrey, United Kingdom)
– Prof. Nima Heirati (Henley Business School, United Kingdom)
– Dr. Jochen Wirtz (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
– Prof. Chanaka Jayawardhena (University of Surrey, United Kingdom)
