IDLAB Research Presented at the ITMO University Forum
On May 20–22, 2026, St. Petersburg hosted the SBAS Forum (Smart Business and Applied Science), organized by ITMO University. During the forum, Valeria Fedorova, a research assistant at IDLAB, presented a study on the impact of generative AI-generated texts on the financial outcomes of crowdfunding campaigns.
The forum brought together students, researchers, and business representatives from various regions of Russia. Participants focused on key challenges of digital transformation: the application of artificial intelligence and data analytics in innovation management, financial analytics, and corporate solutions under structural market changes. Special attention was paid to behavioral economics, data-driven consumer analysis, sustainable business models, climate behavior, and impact assessment.
Valeriia Fedorova gave a presentation in the session “New Horizons and Challenges of AI-Driven Marketing” on the topic “Generative AI in Crowdfunding Marketing Communications: The Impact of Machine Text on Campaign Financial Outcomes.” The study was co-authored with Petr Parshakov, Head of IDLAB, and Marina Zaveryaeva, Senior Researcher at the laboratory.
The authors examined how the use of generative AI in crowdfunding project descriptions relates to campaign success and the amount of funding raised. The results showed that the presence of machine-generated text negatively affects both the probability of a project's success and its financial outcomes.
However, the identified effect is not uniform across all campaigns. Projects raising low to medium amounts proved to be the most sensitive to the use of generative AI. Conversely, top-performing projects in terms of funding volume were the least vulnerable to the presence of machine-generated text in their descriptions.
The findings indicate that utilizing generative AI in marketing communications does not always enhance a project's appeal to potential crowdfunding backers. The impact of such tools depends on the campaign's characteristics and the intended scale of fundraising.
Participating in the Forum allowed me to present our research findings and receive valuable questions and comments that will help improve our work. Furthermore, the forum provided an excellent opportunity to listen to colleagues, get acquainted with the work of other researchers, and connect in person with business representatives who are developing digital technologies.
The project "Internationalization of Companies from Developing Countries: The Role of Intellectual Resources in Response to Exogenous Shocks" is carried out under the framework of the Joint Basic Research Program "International Academic cooperation"
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