Brands Are Slapping 'AI' on Everything. Consumers Are Tuning Out.

A new report from WordPress VIP reveals a growing disconnect between brands eager to embrace artificial intelligence and the consumers they're trying to reach. The survey of 2,000 people found that 60% of U.S. consumers say they're turned off when companies use 'AI' in their marketing messages. Even more striking: 86% don't fully trust AI-generated answers and still prefer to dig into original sources.

The findings suggest that consumers are more skeptical of AI than they are of some notoriously disliked industries. According to the report, 42% said AI-generated answers without clear attribution are trusted less than airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills.

Nearly three out of four respondents said the internet feels less human now than it did a decade ago. That sense of erosion is pushing brands into a tough spot. Companies are racing to make their content visible to AI search engines, but they risk alienating the very people they're trying to reach.

'People used to build websites for other people,' said Brian Alvey, CTO of WordPress VIP. '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.'

Despite the distrust, AI referrals are climbing. Sixty percent of enterprise respondents said traffic from AI search engines increased over the past year, and 74% of decision-makers now prioritize AI discoverability. Yet consumers still value the human touch: 33% said clicking through to an original source is their top trust signal, and 80% believe web information should stay openly accessible rather than controlled by a few large organizations.