A new survey from WordPress VIP, the enterprise arm of Automattic's publishing platform, reveals a sharp disconnect between how brands are marketing themselves and what consumers actually want to hear. According to the report, 60% of U.S. consumers say that when brands include the term "AI" in their messaging, it turns them off. The skepticism runs deeper than marketing language: 86% of respondents don't fully trust AI-generated answers and prefer to seek out original sources themselves. Perhaps most strikingly, 42% said AI answers lacking clear attribution are trusted less than airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills — three things Americans have long complained about. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed agreed the internet feels "less human" than it did a decade ago.
The findings highlight the tension facing brands as they try to maintain visibility in an AI-driven search landscape without alienating their audiences. WordPress VIP CTO Brian Alvey framed the challenge in stark terms, saying companies must now build websites for AI agents acting on behalf of users, not just for the humans themselves. "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," Alvey said. "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." His comments underscore a paradox: businesses are racing to optimize for AI discovery while consumers increasingly associate AI branding with inauthenticity.
Despite that consumer wariness, enterprise decision-makers aren't backing away from AI. The survey, based on 2,000 respondents polled in April — split between 800 enterprise executives and CMOs and 1,200 U.S. adults — found that 60% of enterprise respondents reported increased traffic from AI search engines and answer platforms over the past year. A larger share, 74%, said AI discoverability and attribution are now a main or significant priority for their organizations. In other words, while everyday users are growing more skeptical of AI-flavored content, the companies building for the web are treating AI visibility as table stakes for the next phase of digital competition.
The data points to a future where brands will have to thread a difficult needle: appearing prominently in AI-driven results while still preserving the human voice and transparency that audiences say they crave. With attribution emerging as a flashpoint — consumers want to know where AI answers come from, and many are wary when that context is missing —