Inclusive branding in the age of conversational AI: The role of AI governance in shaping brand-consumer relationships

Inclusive branding embeds diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles into brand identity, positioning and promises. As brand–consumer relationships are increasingly mediated by conversational AI, inclusion is enacted through both traditional marketing tools and everyday AI-driven interactions. Conversational AI thus becomes a relational brand infrastructure whose governance is critical to ensuring coherence between inclusive commitments and consumer experiences. Although research on inclusive branding, conversational AI and AI governance is growing, these streams have evolved separately, with limited attention to how governance shapes the translation of inclusive commitments into AI-mediated relationships. This study addresses this gap by proposing a conceptual framework integrating inclusive branding and conversational AI governance. We argue that AI governance functions as an alignment mechanism that can reinforce or undermine inclusive branding objectives, producing different forms of relational inclusion and consumer outcomes. Case vignettes illustrate how governance configurations shape inclusion in AI-mediated brand interactions. The article contributes to research in these fields by shedding light on how governance reinforces or undermines inclusion in AI-mediated brand relationships and by offering managerial insights to align conversational AI systems with inclusive brand commitments.