Automated Communication's Impact on Strategic Communication: Implications from a Systematic Review

The trend of automation, artificial intelligence, and algorithms has taken hold of strategic communication research and practice. While research on specific automated communication phenomena, such as AI influencers and chatbots, is steadily increasing in fields such as marketing and journalism, its implications for strategic communication have not yet been addressed. To offer a comprehensive overview, a systematic review of 76 articles was conducted to study the conceptualisations, methods, and normative reflections of automated communication across different social science disciplines. Findings show that automated communication has been studied in various contexts, though rarely in strategic communication. Clear and consistent terminology is often lacking and various conceptualisations for sub-phenomena, if present at all, are put forward; automated communication as an overall phenomenon has not yet been defined. Moreover, a plethora of theoretical and methodological approaches have been used, pointing to a lack of coherent knowledge. Thus, current research on automated communication is fragmented and misses a unified understanding of the phenomenon. As a remedy, this study (1) provides a typology of automated communication, (2) proposes a definition of the concept, and (3) discusses its implications for strategic communication research and practice including a research agenda.