60% of US Consumers Reject 'AI' in Brand Messaging, Survey Reveals

A recent report from WordPress VIP, the enterprise arm of Automattic's WordPress platform, reveals a significant challenge for brands: achieving visibility through AI citations is proving less difficult than securing consumer trust. While companies are intensely focused on ensuring their content surfaces in AI search outcomes, the public is simultaneously growing increasingly wary of the reliability of AI-generated responses.

The study indicates a strong consumer aversion, with 60% of U.S. consumers finding brands that highlight “AI” in their communications unappealing. Furthermore, a substantial 86% express a lack of complete trust in AI, preferring to consult original sources. Strikingly, 42% of consumers place less trust in AI-generated answers lacking clear attribution than they do in notoriously frustrating elements like airline fees, convoluted privacy policies, and medical bills.

A notable sentiment captured in the report is that almost three-quarters of respondents perceive the internet as “less human” compared to a decade ago.

Collectively, these insights illuminate a rapidly transforming digital environment where brands are striving to navigate a landscape extending beyond conventional Google Search and SEO strategies. This adaptation requires a delicate balance: while pursuing AI visibility, they must also ensure their content retains a human touch, or risk alienating their audience. As corporate investment in AI search engine discoverability grows, consumers are concurrently prioritizing transparency and clear attribution more than ever.

Brian Alvey, CTO of WordPress VIP, articulated this dichotomy in a statement accompanying the report: “People used to build websites for other people. Now you have to build websites for AI agents acting on behalf of those people. If your site’s content isn’t legible to AI, you are invisible to a growing share of how people search. You don’t exist. And if your content doesn’t feel human and trustworthy for the tiny percentage of people who actually click past the AI answer engines, they won’t come back a second time.”

This comprehensive report draws its conclusions from a survey conducted in April, which gathered insights from 2,000 respondents, including 800 enterprise decision-makers and Chief Marketing Officers, alongside 1,200 U.S. adults.

Interestingly, even amidst this widespread consumer apprehension toward AI, the report also identified a simultaneous increase in site referrals originating from AI platforms.

Specifically, 60% of enterprise respondents reported an increase in traffic from AI search engines and answer platforms over the last year. Moreover, 74% of enterprise decision-makers consider AI discoverability and attribution to be a primary or significant strategic priority.

WordPress VIP suggests that these findings foreshadow a future where brands must adeptly manage the dual objectives of achieving AI visibility and cultivating human trust. The report underscores this by noting that 33% of consumers still consider clicking through to an original source their foremost trust signal, while a significant 80% believe web information should remain openly accessible, rather than being concentrated under the control of a limited number of large organizations.

This final insight resonates deeply with Automattic’s overarching commitment to fostering an open web ecosystem, a philosophy evident in its robust support for the open-source WordPress project and its strategic investments in open web protocols such as ActivityPub.