Referencing AI is easier than gaining consumer trust, according to a new report from WordPress VIP, the Automattic-owned company that offers an enterprise version of the WordPress publishing platform. As brands struggle to get their links to appear in AI search results, consumers have become more skeptical about whether they can really trust the answers they receive.
According to the report, 60% of US consumers say brands that use “AI” in their messaging are off-putting, and 86% do not fully trust AI and still want to explore original sources. Specifically, 42% of consumers said they trust AI-generated answers without clear attribution less than airline fees, confusing privacy policies and medical bills.
Nearly three in four respondents said the Internet feels “less human” than it did 10 years ago.
Together, the findings paint a picture of a rapidly evolving digital landscape where brands are trying to adapt to a world beyond Google Search and traditional SEO, while also balancing the need to appear human-made or risk losing their audience. As companies invest more in making their brand visible to AI search engines, consumers place greater value on transparency and performance.
“People were building websites for other people,” Brian Alvey, CTO of WordPress VIP, said in a statement shared with the new report. “Now you have to build sites for AI agents that act on behalf of those humans. If your site content isn’t AI-readable, you’re not visible to a growing share of how people search. You don’t exist. And if your content doesn’t feel human and trustworthy to the small percentage of people who actually click on the AI machines, they come back a second time.”
The report is based on a survey of 2,000 respondents conducted in April, which included 800 business and CMO decision makers and 1,200 US adults.
Despite consumer wariness about AI, the report also found that AI referrals to websites were on the rise.
60% of business respondents said traffic from AI search engines and answer platforms increased in the past year, and 74% of business decision makers said AI discovery and performance is a top or important priority.
WordPress VIP says the findings point to a future where brands will have to navigate both AI visibility and human trust simultaneously. The report found that 33% of consumers said that clicking to see an original source is still the top signal of trust, and 80% said that information on the web should remain openly accessible, rather than controlled by a small number of large organizations.
The latest finding aligns with Automattic’s broader push for an open web ecosystem, reflected in its support of the WordPress open source project and investments in open web protocols such as ActivityPub.
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