Emotion AI in Marketing: Navigating the Ethical Minefield of Empathy and Manipulation in Customer Engagement

Emotion AI, technologies capable of detecting and responding to human emotions through facial expressions, voice tone, physiological signals, and textual cues, has emerged as a transformative force in digital marketing. By promising emotionally intelligent customer engagement, it blurs the line between personalization and manipulation. This article examines the ethical tensions surrounding the use of Emotion AI in marketing through a combined framework of the Influence Spectrum Model, Value Sensitive Design (VSD), and Stakeholder Responsibility Analysis. Using conceptual synthesis and comparative case analysis, the study draws upon secondary sources including Chavan et al. (2025), Fabiano (2025), and Arango Kure and Garz (2025), as well as MorphCast’s industry case studies, to explore how emotional profiling technologies operate at the intersection of empathy and exploitation. The paper argues that while Emotion AI enhances customer experience and marketing precision, it also risks covertly manipulating affective states, thereby undermining consumer autonomy and emotional privacy. The analysis situates these ethical challenges within the broader socio technical context of AI governance frameworks such as the EU AI Act and emerging digital ethics guidelines. Ultimately, the study proposes a pathway toward responsible affective marketing, emphasizing transparency, informed consent, and the embedding of moral values in algorithmic design. By reframing Emotion AI as not merely a marketing innovation but a moral instrument, this article contributes to the discourse on how empathy can coexist with integrity in the algorithmic marketplace, where understanding human feeling must not become a license to exploit it.