Why 60% of US Consumers Say 'AI' in Brand Messaging Is a Turnoff

A new research report has put a spotlight on a growing tension between businesses and the customers they serve. According to a survey by WordPress VIP — the enterprise arm of Automattic, the company behind the WordPress publishing platform — a clear majority of consumers are growing wary of brands that lean heavily on the word "AI" in their messaging.

The headline finding: 60% of US consumers say that brands using "AI" in their messaging are a turnoff, not a feature. The report, titled "Future of the Web 2026," was covered by TechCrunch reporter Sarah Perez and published on June 16, 2026.

The broader picture the survey paints is one of skepticism. It found that 86% of consumers don't fully trust AI and still want to explore original sources for themselves.

The numbers point to a real disconnect between how brands talk about AI and how customers feel about it.

The survey found that 61% of consumers can't name a single brand that uses AI well in its messaging, and 16% said no brand is using AI well at all. In other words, even businesses that are investing in AI aren't necessarily convincing anyone.

Trust in AI-generated content is especially fragile. The report found that 42% of consumers trust AI-generated answers without clear attribution less than they trust airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills — a striking comparison.

There's also a sense that something has been lost. According to the report, 74% of consumers say the internet feels "less human" than it did 10 years ago, and the average person hits what the report calls "bot fatigue" in about 40 minutes. TechRadar Pro, which ran a companion interview piece, independently echoed that nearly three-quarters of respondents feel the internet is significantly less human than a decade ago.

Here's where the story gets more nuanced. Despite all that consumer wariness, the same report found that AI is becoming a bigger driver of how people actually find businesses online.

Among enterprise respondents, 60% said 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.

As WordPress VIP CTO Brian Alvey put it: "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."

In short, consumers may dislike AI branding — but AI systems are increasingly the gatekeepers deciding which businesses get found at all.

The report is based on a survey of 2,000 respondents conducted in April, made up of 800 enterprise decision-makers and CMOs alongside 1,200 US adults.

It's worth noting that this is vendor-sponsored research. WordPress VIP and its parent company Automattic have a commercial interest in promoting an open web and human-authored content, so the findings are best read as "according to a WordPress VIP survey" rather than as neutral, academic conclusions.

That caveat aside, the underlying signal is consistent across the report and independent press coverage: customers want transparency and a human touch, while AI is quietly reshaping how they discover the businesses they buy from.

For Australian mid-market businesses — including aged care, NDIS and Support at Home providers — there's a practical lesson here that goes beyond marketing language.

The survey reveals two truths sitting side by side: customers value trust, transparency and a human touch, yet AI systems are increasingly deciding who gets found and recommended. Winning in that environment isn't about plastering "AI" across your messaging. It's about quietly using your own data well — to understand clients, deliver genuinely helpful service, and stay discoverable.

That starts with a unified, AI-ready data foundation. When your information from CRMs, accounting tools and care systems lives in one connected place rather than scattered across silos, you can build the kind of consistent, attributable, genuinely useful experiences customers say they want — and give any AI tools you adopt something trustworthy to work with. The brands that earn trust will be the ones whose data, and the service it powers, actually hold up to scrutiny.