A Gartner survey indicates that 50% of U.S. consumers prefer brands that avoid generative AI in consumer-facing content, highlighting a potential disconnect between industry adoption and audience sentiment. The report suggests that streaming and content creators face increasing risks of backlash, prompting some companies to implement more cautious AI strategies.
The immediate implication is a widening gap between internal efficiency gains and external brand equity, as streaming platforms and creators risk alienating their most valuable younger viewers by over-automating production. Within the broader ecosystem, this sentiment suggests that AI-generated video and scripts may face a higher barrier to entry than previous tech shifts like the metaverse or NFTs, primarily due to deep-seated anxieties regarding creative labor and environmental costs. As companies like Higgsfield and Reddit emphasize human-centric communication, the industry must balance technical integration with radical transparency to maintain audience trust. Watch for whether major streaming services begin implementing 'AI-free' labels or public usage disclosures to appease skeptical subscribers.
The Gartner findings land amid a broader reckoning over AI transparency in consumer-facing applications. A separate Gartner survey published earlier in 2025 found that 51% of customers said they would be comfortable letting a GenAI assistant handle support interactions on their behalf, suggesting consumers may be open to AI performing tasks for them while remaining resistant to AI being used on them, particularly in marketing contexts where the relationship between brand interest and consumer interest is less clear-cut (cxm.world, March 2026).
Gartner's Emily Weiss, Senior Principal Analyst in the Marketing practice, framed the issue as a trust decision rather than purely a technology one. She advised that marketers make GenAI optional rather than mandatory, start with clearly assistive use cases that deliver immediate customer value, and label AI-driven experiences so people understand when and how AI is being used (businesswire.com, March 2026). The survey of 1,539 U.S. consumers conducted in October 2025 also found that 61% frequently question whether the information they use to make everyday decisions is reliable, and 68% frequently wonder whether the content and information they see is real.
Kate Muhl, VP analyst at Gartner, offered a more tactical recommendation for brands navigating this environment. She noted that disclosing a tool is powered by AI is not the same as promoting it, and that the risk of alienating ambivalent or anti-AI consumers with a label is likely greater than the reward of drawing in AI enthusiasts (retaildive.com, March 2026). Muhl suggested the best place to integrate AI is early in the customer journey, where consumers use these tools for inspiration and deal-seeking, allowing personalization benefits with lower brand risk.
The skepticism extends beyond marketing into content quality perception. A Gartner survey of 307 U.S. consumers conducted in March 2026 found that 49% agree GenAI has made the quality of content available worse, rising to 57% among Gen Z and millennials (businesswire.com, March 2026). By the end of 2025, only 27% of consumers said they determine whether information is true using intuition, reflecting a shift toward independent checking and verification behaviors. Other research cited by Customer Experience Magazine indicates that 91% of consumers in one study said they expect an explanation for AI-made decisions, reinforcing that is becoming a non-negotiable expectation in customer-facing deployments (, March 2026).
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