A new survey shows that 60% of Americans are turned off when they see the word "AI" in a company's advertising. Even more striking: 86% of consumers don't fully trust AI systems at all, according to research published by WordPress VIP.

Meanwhile, companies are spending billions on AI and proudly labeling their products "AI-powered." These two facts don't line up. The people selling AI are excited about it. The people buying products are wary of it.

Why don't people trust AI? They've seen it fail in public. A chatbot gave legal advice that was completely made up. A recommendation engine suggested products that don't exist. Customer service bots that can't actually fix problems. Each failure chips away at people's confidence. The 86% distrust number reflects that accumulated damage.

Here's the important part: people turning away from the label "AI" is not the same as people rejecting AI tools. Someone might be happy using a faster, smarter customer service system while still being annoyed when the company calls it "AI-powered." That distinction matters a lot for marketing teams, because it means the problem isn't just about making better AI — it's about how you talk about it.

This isn't new. About fifteen years ago, companies were putting "cloud-powered" on everything. It was technically correct, but it didn't mean much to regular people. Eventually, companies stopped using the label and just described what the technology actually did: faster, cheaper, easier to update. AI branding might follow the same path, just faster, because people noticed AI's problems earlier.

There's also a bigger challenge. If most people don't trust AI, that's a problem beyond marketing. Teams building AI-based products need customers to actually use them and get good results. That trust comes from seeing the AI work consistently, understanding how it made a decision, and knowing a real person can step in if something goes wrong. It doesn't come from a nicer interface or a faster response time.

From a practical standpoint, the lesson is clear: invest in AI, but don't feel obligated to advertise it. Use the technology to make your product better. Focus on telling customers what it does for them—faster, more accurate, personalized—rather than explaining the technology behind it. The technology works without needing to be announced.

One survey doesn't tell the whole story, and this one only covers the US. But the same pattern has shown up in consumer research for the past two years. Companies will keep investing in AI regardless. The real question is whether they'll stop the hard-sell on the label before it actually costs them customers.