US consumers skeptical of AI in brand messaging, survey finds

Getting cited by AI is easier than earning consumers' trust, according to a new report from WordPress VIP, the Automattic-owned company that offers an enterprise version of the WordPress publishing platform. As brands race to have their links appear in AI search results, consumers have grown more skeptical about whether they can actually trust the answers they're getting. Per the report, 60% of consumers in the U.S.

say that brands that use 'AI' in their messaging are a turnoff, and 86% don't fully trust AI and still want to explore original sources. Forty-two percent of consumers said that AI-generated answers without clear attribution are trusted less than airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills. Nearly three in four respondents said the internet feels 'less human' than it did 10 years ago.

Together, the findings paint a picture of a rapidly evolving digital world where brands are trying to adapt to a world beyond Google Search and traditional SEO, while also balancing the need to appear human-authored or risk losing their audience. As companies invest more in making their brand visible to AI search engines, consumers are placing greater value on transparency and attribution. 'People used to build websites for other people,' said Brian Alvey, CTO of WordPress VIP, in a statement shared alongside the new report.

'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.' The report is based on a survey of 2,000 respondents conducted in April, comprising 800 enterprise decision-makers and CMOs and 1,200 U.S. adults. Despite consumers' wariness about AI, the report also found that AI referrals to sites were growing.

Sixty percent of enterprise respondents said that traffic from AI search engines and answer platforms increased over the past year, and 74% of enterprise decision-makers said AI discoverability and attribution are a main or significant priority. WordPress VIP says the findings point to a future where brands will have to navigate both AI visibility and human trust simultaneously. The report found that 33% of consumers said clicking through to see an original source is still their top trust signal, and 80% said information on the web should remain openly accessible, rather than controlled by a small number of large organizations.