Sixty Percent of US Consumers Reject 'AI' in Marketing, Despite Enterprise AI Spending Surge

A WordPress VIP survey published 16 June 2026 found 60% of US consumers say "AI" labeling in brand messaging actively repels them, while 86% distrust AI systems broadly. The gap reveals a structural problem: enterprises are doubling down on AI investment and promotion at the exact moment consumers are tuning out the label itself. High-profile AI failures—hallucinated citations, fabricated recommendations, unresolved support loops—have eroded baseline credibility faster than similar technologies accumulated it. Outcome-focused messaging outperforms process language regardless of underlying mechanism.