Chapter 4: Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes, and Corporate Intelligence: A Systematic Literature Review on Ethical and Strategic Implications for Business Transparency and Decision-Making Available to Purchase

Purpose: This study reflects on the integrative process of distilling a vast, interdisciplinary examination of artificial intelligence (AI), deepfake technologies, and corporate intelligence into a systematic literature review. It interrogates the convergence of algorithmic augmentation and synthetic deception and how this intersection redefines transparency, trust, and decision-making in contemporary corporate ecosystems.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a structured, multi-stage research design, this review adopted a PRISMA-based selection methodology, articulated five core research questions, and employed thematic synthesis across AI-BI usage, deepfake ethics, stakeholder trust, mitigation strategies, and epistemic reliability. The structure mirrors a musical progression – comprising introductory exposition, contrapuntal thematic development through literature tables, interpretive analysis, and a complex final cadence of synthesis and reflection.

Findings: The literature reveals a paradoxical duality: AI serves both as a tool of epistemic enhancement and as a mechanism of ontological erosion via deepfakes. While AI improves strategic forecasting and operational efficiency, it also contributes to the destabilisation of informational authenticity. Deepfakes exacerbate stakeholder scepticism and threaten organisational legitimacy. The reductive impulse of summarising this complex interplay to a few keywords highlights the epistemological constraints inherent in academic dissemination.

Research Limitations/Implications: This reflexive abstract underscores the tension between comprehensive scholarly inquiry and the reductive exigencies of academic summarisation, offering a meta-commentary on the representational fidelity of abstracts.

Originality/value: This abstract embodies a scholarly paradox – encapsulating an expansive, multidisciplinary review within a narrow textual constraint, inviting critical reflection on the mechanisms of academic reduction itself.