Slapping "AI" on your product or marketing copy may be doing more harm than good, according to new research. A survey from WordPress VIP found that 60% of U.S. consumers say seeing "AI" in a brand's messaging is a turnoff — a striking finding at a moment when companies are racing to tout their artificial intelligence features.
The skepticism doesn't stop at brand language. According to TechCrunch's reporting on the survey, 86% of respondents said they always or sometimes go back to check the original source after encountering an AI-generated summary. That means even when AI surfaces a brand or product in search results, consumers aren't simply taking the answer at face value.
The tension here is real: as WordPress VIP's report notes, companies increasingly see AI-powered search as an important referral channel — a way to get discovered by customers who never type a URL or scroll through results. But the survey suggests that getting cited by AI and actually earning a consumer's trust are two very different things.
In plain terms, brands are caught in a bind. Leaning into AI as a selling point may alienate the majority of shoppers, yet opting out of AI-driven distribution could mean missing out on visibility entirely. The data suggests consumers want the benefits of smarter technology without being constantly reminded it's there.
The findings matter because they signal that the AI marketing gold rush may have a backlash ceiling — and companies that treat "AI" as an automatic badge of quality could find it working against them.