<![CDATA[While AI-based personalization is prevalent in e-commerce, the psychological processes underlying the transformation of these experiences into engagement remain under-theorized. The current study aims to examine a moderated-mediation model with perceived value and customer trust as parallel mediators and privacy concerns as moderator. We conducted a quantitative cross-sectional survey among 476 online consumers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4.0 using PLS-SEM, which includes measurement invariance testing and power analysis. The results confirm that AI-driven personalization significantly increases engagement directly and indirectly through perceived value (β=0.235) and trust (β=0.145). Interestingly, privacy concerns largely mitigate the trust-building path (β=−0.143). This research makes a novel contribution to the literature by empirically validating the “personalization-privacy paradox” in the emerging Southeast Asian market through a dual-pathway mediation lens. In practice, e-commerce operators should consider functional utility (value) as the main driver of engagement, while trust is a long-term relational outcome that needs transparent data governance.]]>
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