Luca Cian is the Killgallon Ohio Art Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Marketing Area at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. He was a visiting professor at Columbia Business School. Outside academia, Luca is a keynote speaker and consultant, serving as an AI expert advisor for the Department of Homeland Security and Fortune 500 companies navigating AI transformation. A marketing professor with a Ph.D. in Psychology, he specializes in the psychology of AI and human-machine interaction. His research on the 'Word-of-Machine' effect—revealing when consumers trust AI versus human recommendations—earned the American Marketing Association's Research in Practice Award. He teaches 'Artificial Intelligence: Psychological Insights' to executives at Darden and has been featured in Harvard Business Review, NPR, and the New York Times. In 2019, he was named one of Poets & Quants' '40 Most Outstanding Business Professors Under 40.' His current work helps brands understand how AI reshapes consumer relationships and purchasing decisions.