Today, more brands are embracing generative AI to produce effective marketing content and improve efficiency at scale, however, consumer sentiment is moving in the opposite direction.
In fact, recent Gartner research revealed that 49% of U.S. consumers believe generative AI has made ultimately content quality worse, whilst half agree they would prefer to buy from brands that avoid using AI in marketing altogether.
With customers continuing to value human connection and brands optimizing for speed and output, this widening gap is becoming more apparent as traditional performance metrics fail to capture true customer responses.
Speaking with CX Today, Carrie Parker, Chief Marketing Officer at Medallia, discussed the importance of preserving the human elements of marketing as AI adoption accelerates.
“Authenticity means speaking and connecting authentically,” she explained.
“AI is a powerful engine for scaling insights, but human judgment, distinct brand values, and emotional connection must always hold the steering wheel.”
The Core Tension, What Brands Want vs What Customers Want
The increasing pressure to produce more marketing content in less time and with fewer resources is becoming more apparent to brands, as the rise of generative AI has made it possible to create campaigns and content at unprecedented speeds.
Whilst this technology delivers clear operational efficiencies, current consumer attitudes suggest a growing disconnect between what brands are optimizing for and what audiences actually value.
In fact, Gartner research found that 61% of consumers frequently question whether the information they rely on is reliable, while 68% regularly wonder whether the content they encounter online is even real.
Skepticism is also particularly strong among younger audiences, with 57% of Gen Z and Millennials believing AI has made content quality worse, as current online discussions reflect this concern.
“I think that AI marketing will undoubtably flood the scene, but more importantly, consumers will vote with their pocket and go for more human strategies,” said one Reddit user.
“The most effective channels are still going to be those built on real opt-in and relationships. People will be less willing to pay for marketing,” noted another.
With many marketers warning that the abundance of AI-generated content is contributing to a “zero trust” environment where authenticity has become harder to establish.
“Consumers have a zero-tolerance policy for generic AI noise,” Parker continued.
“As AI use expands, the human voice and touch become premium differentiators, not an afterthought.”
Why Brand Metrics Can Mislead
Relying on traditional marketing metrics can create a false sense of success in the age of AI-generated content, as these outdated indicators primarily measure attention over long-term brand affinity.
This reluctance toward AI-powered information remains critical to CX, as Gartner found that 53% of consumers distrust AI-generated search results, while 41% say AI-generated summaries make searching more frustrating.
At the same time, the customers who become disengaged often do so quietly. They do not necessarily unsubscribe, unfollow, or stop purchasing immediately. Instead, they gradually pay less attention to brand communications, a trend that is rarely reflected in standard campaign reports.
Channing Ferrer, Chief Revenue Officer and Americas CEO at Brevo, told CX Today that marketers should look beyond conventional performance metrics to understand how customers are really responding to their communications.
“Strong impressions and click-through can paper over a rotting foundation, and that should worry CX leaders most. Engagement tells you a message got attention, but not if that attention is curdling into fatigue,” he said.
“The number nobody watches is silent disengagement: the customers who haven’t unsubscribed, but they’ve just simply stopped caring. Those people inflate your dashboard.”
As a result, strong metrics can mask weakening trust and declining long-term loyalty.
Balancing Both Needs
Instead of rejecting AI altogether, brands will need to redirect it to deliver genuine value without compromising customer relationships, enabling it to accelerate workflows and help marketing teams work more efficiently.
In fact, only one-third of consumers believe generative AI chatbots are as effective as traditional search engines for learning new information, according to a Gartner report.
Trust remains a critical barrier to wider adoption amongst brands, with AI performing most effective as a tool that supports human expertise to preserve oversight for brand voice.
Christina Kyriazi, Chief Marketing Officer at PhotoShelter, explained to CX Today why human creativity remains central to effective marketing.
“Human-created content is the source of authenticity,” she explained.
“Marketing teams can use AI to scale production and streamline workflows, but the stories, experiences, and perspectives that create emotional connections with audiences will always be inherently human.”
This balance enables organizations maintain the authenticity and emotional connection that customers expect.
How Should We Measure Beyond Clicks
As skepticism grows, marketers will need to rethink how they define success, as by the end of 2025, Gartner research found that only 27% of consumers relied primarily on intuition when deciding whether information was true.
With customers now evaluating brands more critically, the impact of marketing is increasingly reflected in long-term perceptions, moving the competitive edge away from campaign performance as more organizations place greater emphasis on relationship and engagement quality.
In conversation with CX Today, Sabrina Leblanc, Senior Vice President of Sales & Customer Success at SurveyMonkey, emphasized the importance of evaluating marketing success through the lens of long-term customer relationships.
“Clicks and engagement tell you whether something captured attention, but they don’t predict business growth. They also don’t tell you whether customers trust you more after the interaction. That’s the gap many organizations overlook,” she noted.
“The more important question is whether an interaction strengthened the relationship. That’s a much stronger predictor of long-term growth than whether it generated another click. Clicks fade. Relationships compound.”
As AI becomes a standard part of marketing workflows, successful brands will be measuring the strength of customer relationships as a differentiator.
The Future is Not Fully AI-Generated Brand Content
As generative AI makes it easier to produce content at scale, human perspectives and original storytelling will become increasingly valuable because they are harder to replicate.
Content authentication and transparency are also becoming more important as consumers look for stronger signals of credibility, with Gartner’s research finding that 50% of U.S. consumers would prefer to buy from brands that avoid using generative AI in customer-facing content points.
As more brands respond to customer expectations, this reflects a broader shift in how trust is earned, as more consumers place greater emphasis on meaningful human connection.
As a result, those that reinvest the efficiency gains delivered by AI into stronger creative thinking and clearer brand differentiation will be best positioned for long-term success, establishing clear boundaries between tasks that benefit from automation and those that require human judgment.
Jonathan Moran, Head of MarTech Solutions Marketing at SAS, spoke to CX Today about the importance of defining clear roles for AI and human expertise within modern marketing teams.
“As AI commoditizes generic content, human authenticity will become more valuable, not less. Organizations scaling AI should establish clear zones: AI handles volume and personalisation; humans own brand voice, strategy, and trust-building.”
“Authenticity comes from consistent values and perspective, which is something AI can amplify but not originate and keep fully consistent over time.”
Rather than replacing people, AI’s greatest value lies in giving marketers more time to create the authentic experiences that customers increasingly seek.
