Survey finds many US consumers dislike brands that say “AI”

In short: A new survey suggests many people in the US are skeptical when brands highlight “AI” in their messaging, even as more companies chase traffic from AI search tools.

What's going on

WordPress VIP, a company that provides an enterprise version of WordPress, released a report based on a survey conducted in April. The survey included 2,000 people, split between 1,200 US adults and 800 enterprise decision-makers and marketing leaders.

In the survey, 60% of US consumers said brands that use the term “AI” in their messaging are a turnoff. Another finding was that 86% said they do not fully trust AI and still want to explore original sources, like the website or article the information came from.

Trust drops even more when AI answers do not clearly show where they came from. In fact, 42% of consumers said AI-generated answers without clear attribution are less trustworthy than things many people already dislike, such as airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills. Nearly three in four respondents also said the internet feels “less human” than it did 10 years ago.

At the same time, companies say AI is becoming a bigger source of visitors. Sixty percent of enterprise respondents said traffic from AI search engines and answer platforms increased over the past year, and 74% said being easy for AI to find and properly credit is an important priority.

What to watch

Expect more brands to focus on showing their sources clearly, like adding receipts to a claim (attribution is like a footnote that points to where an answer came from). The report suggests people still see “clicking through to the original source” as a key trust signal, so companies may need to balance being visible to AI tools and still feeling human to readers.

Source: TechCrunch AI