Gaia Rancati

Dr. Gaia Rancati is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and Director of the Neuromarketing & AI Lab. She holds a visiting assistant professorship at IULM University, Italy, and previously served as an assistant professor at Allegheny College and senior researcher at Claremont Graduate University. Her research focuses on neuromarketing applications in AI-driven retail environments, luxury fashion consumer behavior, and human-robot interactions in service contexts.

Education: PhD (2018), MA (2009), and BA (2009) in Marketing from Università IULM, Milan. Professional experience includes roles as sales manager at Louis Vuitton and retail manager at Value Retail and Max Mara, providing industry grounding for her academic work.

• Research Interests: Neuromarketing, AI in Retail, Service Robots, Luxury Consumer Psychology, Biometric Marketing Tools
• Labs/Teams: Leads MTSU’s Neuromarketing & AI Lab (debuting March 2025), co-founded Affectively Research (US neuromarketing network)

Key achievements include the 2019 ‘Woman of Excellence in Retail’ award, authorship of influential 2023 papers on human-robot interactions, and presentations at global forums like the World Retail Congress and World Neuromarketing Forum. Her work integrates biometric tools (e.g., galvanic skin response) with AI to analyze consumer behavior in physical/digital retail spaces.

• Awards: Multiple best paper awards (EMAC, NEUBA), MTSU Research Scholar accolades
• Media Engagement: Featured in MTSU News, USA Today Ad Meter, and York City College EU articles