Why AI Content Makes Consumers Uncomfortable
A core aspect for all brands is that they create a form of gift economy that underpins the consumer-brand relationship. When your audience is engaging with your brand’s content there’s an implicit social contract that is formed. Your brand invests effort and attention in communication, and the consumer reciprocates with trust and attention in return. Poor or deceptive and over-use of AI in both written and visual content can break or damage this transaction.
Our netnographic research over the past several months has shown that 42.4% of consumers for both B2B and B2C brands feel a brand that uses AI for both written and visual content are lazy and and uncreative. We’ve noted too what we call the “Uncanny Cognitive Valley” when it comes to AI written content. It’s similar to the Uncanny Valley in robotics. People get kinda creeped out when content is “close” to being human, but not quite.
Consumers tend to feel that this negative perception also comes out of the view that this content requires less effort, leading them to think it is inauthentic as backed by other research, not just ours. So what to do?
Marketing has always been a form of collective ritual, creating shared emotional experiences that connects people with a brand. It’s why emotions play so well in advertising. Coca-Cola’s 2025 Christmas ad is a prime example of emotional disconnect. Christmas is a shared ritual and very much about being human. Coke, usually extremely good at this, misread the cultural tea leaves this time and they had to pull the ad.
For brands to use AI in their marketing in 2026, they’re going to have to get clever and understand where culture is with regard to AI and meet them there. It doesn’t mean stop using AI by any means, but it does mean using AI right. So here’s what we suggest based on our research.
Using AI in Marketing for 2026
Map your sacred spaces. All brands have emotional touh-points; origin stories, traditions and fitting into rituals and behaviours. This is where human craft carries the most weight. This is where the strongest backlash happens with consumers. This can help you determine when and where to use AI for operational efficiency, not creative.
Show the effort by signalling where it counts. Human investment is becoming a luxury signal. So show it! People will feel more connected with your brand when they can see human engagement. They’ll trust your brand more and you get out front of brands that just push out AI generated content.
If you’re a B2B brand, bring in the experts! The human ones. Decision makers don’t want to hear from an algorithm, they want to hear from practitioners in the real world. Names, faces, voices, words. Use AI for research and creating drafys but the narrative needs to be driven by humans.
When human oversight and participation is plainly evident, you build trust. Use AI tools as augmentation, not creation. AI for personalization, data analysis, and operational efficiency? Consumers are increasingly comfortable with this. AI replacing human creativity in brand storytelling? That's where trust erodes.
Some pundits frame thi negative AI sentiment by consumers as being anti-technology. Not at all. They’re pro-relationship through a human exchange of values and ideas, not algorithms. Thats’ culture on a diet.
AI tools are excellent for A/B testing, or drafting and some research, automating workflows and ideation. By creating efficiencies in these areas, you can shift budget toward more human activities with storytelling, leveraging experts and creating visuals where people feel a human involvement. Customers can tell when you’re trying and that’s what keeps that gift economy thriving. As we noted before, in 2026 consumers are seeking warmth and comfort in a world filled with uncertainty.
Image Courtesy: Annie Spratt
