Can AI make you nostalgic for a life you never lived?

An AI-generated video shows your grandparents dancing at their wedding. Another lets you walk through the house where you grew up. A third recreates the version of your life in which you accepted a different job, married someone else or never moved abroad.

You know none of it really happened.

But that may matter less than we think. Researchers at ESCP are drawing attention to a new frontier in AI: personalised experiences that can feel like memories, even when they depict events that never happened. As these experiences become more immersive and emotionally engaging, they raise an uncomfortable question for businesses. If AI can shape how we experience the past, where should the limits of emotional persuasion lie?

Why imagined experiences can feel real

Most of us think of memory as a recording. Something happens, our mind stores it, and later we replay it. That’s not how memory actually works.

Every time we remember something, our mind reconstructs it from fragments: faces, sounds, emotions, places and meaning. That reconstructed version is then stored again, which is one reason memories naturally change over time.

Even more surprisingly, the mind uses many of the same neural networks to imagine an event as it does to remember one. This is what allows us to plan for the future, imagine conversations before they happen and learn from past experiences.

But it also means that a vivid imagined experience can leave a genuine emotional trace.

Psychologists have shown for decades that people can develop surprisingly detailed false memories. AI doesn’t change how memory works. It changes how convincing the imagined experience can become.

Instead of asking you to imagine your childhood home, AI can rebuild it from photographs. Instead of asking you to picture your parents’ wedding, AI can generate the scene. Instead of wondering what life might have looked like had you made a different decision, AI can let you experience it.

The result is not that people suddenly lose their grip on reality. The risk is more subtle. Repeated, emotionally rich simulations can begin to shape how people feel about their own past, their identity and even their future choices.

A powerful tool—and a risky one

That possibility also explains why researchers believe businesses should tread carefully.

Memory is closely tied to identity. The stories we tell about our childhood, our relationships and our biggest decisions shape who we believe we are. If AI can repeatedly recreate emotionally charged experiences, particularly ones built around grief, regret or missed opportunities, it could begin to influence those stories.

Someone who repeatedly revisits an AI-generated version of a happier childhood may start comparing their real past against the simulated one. A grieving person might find comfort in conversations with an AI recreation of a loved one, but also become reluctant to let those conversations end. A consumer could begin associating a particular brand not simply with a product, but with emotional healing, closure or belonging.

In other words, AI doesn’t need to convince us that a memory is real to influence us. It only needs the experience to feel emotionally meaningful.

From selling products to shaping memories

The researchers warn that companies therefore need to think beyond traditional marketing ethics.

Clear disclosure is essential: users should know when experiences are AI-generated. Consent also matters, particularly for emotionally sensitive simulations. Additional safeguards may be needed for vulnerable groups, including people experiencing grief or major life transitions.

Those recommendations reflect a broader shift. As AI becomes more capable of creating emotionally persuasive experiences, transparency may no longer be enough. Businesses may also have to ask whether every technically possible experience should be created in the first place.

That question matters because this technology has enormous potential. AI-generated memories could help preserve family histories, reconnect people with their cultural heritage or support therapeutic work under professional guidance. Used responsibly, they could become powerful tools for education, remembrance and emotional wellbeing.

The challenge is that the same technology could reshape marketing itself.

Brands have always tried to create memorable experiences. AI raises the possibility of creating experiences that feel like memories. The distinction may seem subtle; however, it significantly changes the relationship between companies and consumers.

New frontiers in AI could allow businesses to become part of the personal narratives through which people make sense of their lives. That is a very different kind of influence, and it ought to attract increasing scrutiny as the technology develops.