60% of Americans are put off by the word "AI" in brand marketing, WordPress VIP survey finds

Six in ten American consumers say that mentions of "AI" in brand messaging, advertising, or product descriptions put them off. That is the headline finding of a new survey from WordPress VIP.

The numbers that surprised marketers

WordPress VIP is a cloud platform for large media organizations, corporate blogs, and publishers. Its survey covered consumers in the US and focused on how people respond to AI-centric brand communications and AI-generated content.

The result was clear-cut: most people are wary of the word "AI" itself in marketing materials. And that skepticism does not fade as people become more familiar with the technology.

• 60% of respondents called mentions of AI in branding "off-putting"
• Consumers trust AI-generated answers less than text written by human authors
• Skepticism runs especially high in categories where trust matters most: health, finance, and news
• Younger audiences (18–34) are slightly more receptive to AI-driven communications than older generations
• Even when an AI answer is high quality, the simple fact that a machine produced it lowers trust

Companies, however, are heading in exactly the opposite direction.

Business sees it differently

While consumers bristle at the word "AI," corporate teams are investing heavily in their presence in AI search. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews are becoming major traffic sources and the first point of contact with new audiences.

For marketers and SEO specialists, that marks a fundamental change. Traditional search engine optimization now sits alongside a new discipline, GEO (generative engine optimization): the goal is not just to rank in search results, but to become the source an AI agent cites when it answers a user.

The catch is that the audience brands are trying to reach through AI channels doesn't put much trust in those channels.

Honesty doesn't help

Many companies now openly label content as "written with the help of AI," partly for the sake of transparency. The reasoning makes sense: honesty beats staying quiet.

But the WordPress VIP survey shows that this openness doesn't always work in a brand's favor. When consumers see an "AI" label, they read it not as a sign of transparency but as a signal of lower quality, as if the company had cut corners on staff or swapped real expertise for automation.

"Consumers value authenticity.

If a brand highlights AI where there used to be a human, people read it as a replacement, not an improvement."

The gap hurts media publishers most, and their readers are exactly the audience WordPress VIP knows best. People used to bylined work with a clear point of view react sharply to anything that feels like "a stream from a machine."

The practical takeaway for marketers: AI works better behind the scenes. The technology can improve personalization, speed up support, and analyze data, but customer-facing communication is better left to a human voice. Not "we use AI," but "here's what we did for you."

What it means

The WordPress VIP survey captures a real contradiction: what companies promote as a competitive advantage, consumers treat as a reason to choose another brand. For now, AI in marketing works better as infrastructure than as a selling point, and the teams that understand this gain a tactical edge.