How Stakeholders Perceive Generative AI in Sustainability Reports: Assistance or Interference?

Abstract

Progressive improvements in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) are leading to an expansion of its application, including sustainability reporting. While this promises efficiency gains, little is known about how stakeholders perceive AI-generated reports. This study investigates the perception of external stakeholders of such reports with different levels of AI involvement, examined through an online experiment with 96 participants in Germany. Our findings show that human post-processing plays a crucial role: reports co-created with AI are perceived as equally credible as human-written ones, while fully automated reports are rated significantly lower. These results underline the relevance of human involvement for maintaining credibility in sensitive communication contexts. They also provide practical insights for communicating AI-assisted sustainability reporting, highlighting the psychological dynamics that shape stakeholder trust.