At some point in the last two years, AI in content marketing crossed a line.
It went from being an experimental back-office tool to a front-stage performer and an all-around personalization powerhouse. And it didn’t tiptoe. It marched in with news anchors, marketing copywriters, and even video game characters handing it the mic.
But now that AI-generated content has become part of the digital landscape—omnipresent, seamless, and often indistinguishable from human output—an uncomfortable question is surfacing across marketing departments: Do consumers still care if a brand's marketing collateral is AI-generated?
Let’s unpack that.
The rise of 'Who wrote this?'
Not long ago, a company proudly declaring that its white papers, emails, or product descriptions were written by AI would have raised eyebrows. The reaction would likely have been a mix of curiosity and skepticism. It felt novel, futuristic, and even a little risky. That novelty has since worn off.
Today, it's not uncommon to see AI-assisted content marketing tools on every marketer's dashboard—a whopping 90% of them, to be exact. ChatGPT, Jasper, Copy.ai, Writesonic—they're no longer experimental gadgets but essential parts of the digital content creation workflow.
They are quietly churning out everything from SEO landing pages and social media captions to personalized marketing for everything from onboarding emails, newsletter creation and executive summaries.
But as these tools have become normalized, a subtle shift has taken place. Where early adopters once wore their AI badges with pride, marketers today are a bit more guarded. They wonder: Should we disclose this to our target audience? Will people care? Will they trust us less or think we're cutting corners?
There's a growing realization that the perception of AI-generated content can either bolster a brand's image as innovative or damage it as inauthentic.
What data says (and doesn't say)
Surveys and reports offer a mixed bag of insights, and interpreting them requires nuance. A 2025 study conducted by Talker Research found that 78% of Americans believe it’s getting harder to tell whether content is real or AI-generated, and 75% said they now trust online information less than they used to. That included written content, reviews, news, and even images. Interestingly, only 30% could correctly identify whether a review had been written by a person or a machine.
The line between human and AI content marketing is clearly blurring, but that doesn’t necessarily mean people are happy about it.
Meanwhile, a 2024 consumer study by Getty Images revealed that nearly 90% of people want brands to disclose whether AI was used to generate images or other visual content. While this was specific to visuals, the implication is broader: transparency matters.
People may not reject AI-created content marketing outright, but they still want to know when it’s used, especially if it's being passed off as real.
Trust in AI in general is also far from universal. The 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer showed that only 30% of global consumers trust that companies will use AI responsibly. Among the top concerns: job loss, misinformation, and lack of oversight.
The report doesn’t address content marketing directly, but the implication is clear—if people already distrust AI at a systemic level, that doubt inevitably trickles down to branded content.
Consumers aren't luddites — they're pragmatists
Contrary to some alarmist narratives, consumers aren’t fundamentally opposed to AI-generated content, although 70% of them are wary of content that’s entirely AI-generated. They’re pragmatic. They want useful, relevant, and easily digestible information. And if AI delivers that better or faster, most people are more than willing to accept it—consciously or not.
This pragmatism becomes clear when you look at consumer behavior in real time. People routinely interact with AI in chatbots, voice assistants, auto-reply emails, and curated content hubs. They rarely object unless something goes wrong—a tone-deaf answer, a robotic response, or a clear mismatch between intent and delivery.
In this way, consumer tolerance of AI isn't rooted in fear or nostalgia. It’s based on what the content accomplishes. When AI enhances convenience and clarity, it earns a seat at the table. When it stumbles into territory requiring empathy, insight, or originality, it risks alienating the very audience it’s meant to serve.
The new gold standard: Authenticity
Here’s the nuance: people don’t dislike AI-generated content. They’re aware of this trend in content marketing and don’t mind it. Instead, they dislike inauthentic content. The real issue isn’t whether something was written by AI, but whether it feels robotic, generic, or hollow.
AI tools are excellent for scaling content production, but they're not great at original insights, cultural nuance, or creative flair. Brands that lean too heavily on AI often end up producing content that looks polished but says nothing new. And audiences pick up on that quickly.
In contrast, brands that blend AI capabilities with human oversight—crafting original ideas, then using AI to structure, streamline, or enhance—tend to strike the right chord. They produce content that’s both efficient and expressive.
Transparency: To disclose or not to disclose?
This is arguably the most divisive question among content teams. Should brands explicitly tell their audience when a piece of content was generated (or co-generated) by AI?
There's no universal answer. For some industries—finance, healthcare, education—disclosure might be crucial for compliance, credibility, and ethical clarity. In other cases—such as product descriptions, internal newsletters, or knowledge base articles—disclosure may feel unnecessary, even distracting.
Interestingly, consumer reaction often hinges on how the disclosure is framed. If it's a footnote that says, "This article was generated by AI," it can feel cold and impersonal. But if it reads, "This article was created with the assistance of AI to ensure accuracy and efficiency," it positions the technology as a supportive tool rather than a replacement. That framing changes everything.
There’s also the matter of intent. If your brand is experimenting with AI in creative, innovative ways, transparency can become a differentiator. Some companies actively showcase how they use AI for content ideation and creation, positioning themselves as tech-savvy and forward-thinking. When done right, this can actually enhance trust.
Still, blanket disclosure policies often backfire. They strip away the nuance and create a binary that doesn’t match how content is actually produced. Today, most b2b content is a hybrid—a blend of automation, human editing, SEO tools, and brand strategy. Drawing a hard line between "human" and "AI" can feel artificial and reductive.
The smarter move is contextual transparency: be honest when it matters, and intentional when it doesn’t.
The bottom line: Consumers care...until they don't
So, do consumers still care if a brand's content is AI-generated?
Yes—when it shows.
When the content lacks soul, personality, or relevance. When it feels like a cheap trick. But when AI is used to deliver better, smarter, faster content experiences, most consumers aren’t losing sleep over it.
In fact, they're probably grateful.
Content, after all, is just a vehicle. What matters is where it's taking the reader.
If the journey is smooth, insightful, and maybe even a little inspiring, then the driver doesn’t matter as much as we once thought.
