According to a new report from WordPress VIP, the company that offers an enterprise version of the WordPress publishing platform, 60% of consumers in the U.S. say that brands that use AI in their
messaging are a turnoff, and 86% don’t fully trust AI and still want to explore original sources.
In recent college graduation ceremonies across the country, from the University of
Arizona to the University of Central Florida and Middle Tennessee State University, students have begun loudly booing commencement speakers when their speech turned into AI pep talks. High-profile
figures like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced stadium-wide jeers for preaching about how AI will "touch every profession."
Also, 71% of Americans oppose the building of data centers near
their home, and tech companies face bipartisan moratoriums over grid strain and rising electricity prices. It's projected that these data centers will drive up wholesale electricity costs 29% by the
end of the decade.
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Data also shows consumer "AI backlash" happening at the intersection of first-party data and what regulators call "surveillance pricing" or "personalized dynamic pricing."
Delta Airlines sparked a fierce public and congressional uproar when it appeared to signal to shareholders that it would use AI to optimize domestic fares. There was immediate blowback: Consumers took
to social media to brand the strategy as "predatory," writing highly damaging responses like this about bereavement fees: "Imagine your grief becoming an upselling opportunity... we know you're
suffering and we priced accordingly.” It forced Delta to issue defensive letters clarifying that it was optimizing macro routes, not spying on individual wallets.
But the damage was
done. Across industries, from food delivery platforms like Instacart to restaurant chains like Wendy's, consumers are revolting against AI algorithms that treat them like wallets to be optimized in
real time.
New York passed the Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act: Retailers and delivery apps using personal data to set individualized prices must now post an all-caps disclosure at the
digital checkout: "THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA.” States like California, Maryland, and Connecticut have introduced aggressive statutes to entirely ban food
retailers from using personal consumer data to charge individualized, higher prices. The Federal Trade Commission officially opened a formal probe into the use of AI-driven tools generating
individualized consumer pricing.
At the same time, consumers have no issues with AI for personal use. Thousands upload text files daily to Claude or ChatGPT to ask for advice on all
manner of issues, and at work they (and you and me) use it to summarize spreadsheets or build workflows.
Still, consumers loudly reject the cultural AI slop hitting their feeds, the corporate
vanity scripts being preached at them from graduation stages, the potential cost increases of surveillance pricing, and the very real physical cost and impact of infrastructure -- the massive,
power-guzzling, water-guzzling data centers.
AI is no longer seen by consumers just as a personal superpower. It is also seen as a corporate cost-cutting and profit-generating mechanism
working at the expense of consumers. Your brand's association with AI is now both a great business opportunity -- and at the same time, a potential legal and reputational liability.