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Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

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Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#211

Post by harrall »

torben-friis wrote: post #92
dbalatero wrote: post #5

I could be wrong, but it feels like one issue is that AI seems to cater more as a signal to venture capital and the internals of the tech industry in a lot of these products, while consumers just want to know "what is this product going to actually do for me," and care less about whether it is implemented with the buzzword du jour.

>while consumers just want to know "what is this product going to actually do for me," and care less about whether it is implemented with the buzzword du jour. I would say that undersells the (not neutral, actively negative) impact of AI to many. What many people hear is "made with the tech that plagiarizes, leaves artists (and soon you as well) without a job, and makes things generic and bland!" You might as well ma…

I’m in constant code switch mode.

Among a larger % of my tech friends, AI is cool.

Among my non-tech friends, AI has been uncool.

Among by artist friends, AI has been really uncool for years.

I’m personally in a “water is wet” position.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#212

Post by goalieca »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #173
Aurornis wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I talk to people, from school students to middle aged employees, the common story is that they appreciate what AI can do for them when they choose to use it. They are tired of hearing AI as a buzzword and having it shoehorned into every app and service they use. Most AI features have been rushed to market to check a box to say a company has an AI strategy, but they don’t work well. They’re just changing a famili…

aye. I work with AI every day in an IT role and at this point I am painfully aware of its strengths and limitations. And it does have strengths. But those strengths come with serious limitations, and huge society-level trade-offs. Annihilating the power grid in exchange for poorly formatted Powerpoint slides is not really a worthwhile exchange. For most other products, like my cellphone, AI has no benefit except to f…

Apple is obsoleting the 8 series and earlier of watches because they can't deliver on the "AI" features that product so wants to push. This is really sad.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#213

Post by kakacik »

torben-friis wrote: post #92
dbalatero wrote: post #5

I could be wrong, but it feels like one issue is that AI seems to cater more as a signal to venture capital and the internals of the tech industry in a lot of these products, while consumers just want to know "what is this product going to actually do for me," and care less about whether it is implemented with the buzzword du jour.

>while consumers just want to know "what is this product going to actually do for me," and care less about whether it is implemented with the buzzword du jour. I would say that undersells the (not neutral, actively negative) impact of AI to many. What many people hear is "made with the tech that plagiarizes, leaves artists (and soon you as well) without a job, and makes things generic and bland!" You might as well ma…

Apart form all other comments which are mostly from IT insider perspective, which most mankind simply doesn't have, AI means real rather than potential job loss in future.

I've talked to doctors, drivers, lawyers etc. and most white collar and many blue collar jobs feel the threat. Which, based on various news, feel justified even if not immediate. Even if its not the same llm per se, but the word "AI" is already tarnished as scum backstabbing negative entity, I literally don't know a single person who sees it these days positively.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#214

Post by stetrain »

Sharlin wrote: post #186
kranke155 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All people I know hear when they hear AI is - they are automating art, there are layoffs incoming, they want to build a data centre next to me that will make my electricity costs go up, they are automating the consumer help call center. The positive views of AI are really increasingly concentrated amongst some of the tech heavy population.

Honestly, what are the positive viewpoints of generative AI in the end? Are there others major ones than the following? * My vibe coding machine goes brrrrt and that's all I care about * My college essay cheating machine goes brrrt and that's all I care about * My custom waifu/porn-generating machine goes brrrt and that's all I care about * The concept of AI is drawing all the investor money and that's all I care abo…

The positive viewpoint is basically like the Industrial Revolution or the post-WWII consumer/convenience boom.

If productivity can increase significantly per worker, the result will be major overall economic growth.

It might be sold to consumers the way vacuums and washing machines were. With these automated modern conveniences you'll spend less time working and have more time for leisure.

Of course the reality for the actual workers on the line is that their job and industry may be disrupted and the overall benefits of that economic growth may not reach them during their lifetime. The Industrial Revolution was followed by a century of major and sometimes violent disputes over the relationship between corporations and labor and the rights of workers.

The post-WWII promises of convenience and leisure were replaced by the reality of the baseline adjusting and households needing to work the same or even more combined hours to make ends meet.

Even if the optimistic levels of economic growth occur, the benefits are unlikely to be evenly distributed.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#215

Post by tonyedgecombe »

Sharlin wrote: post #186
kranke155 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All people I know hear when they hear AI is - they are automating art, there are layoffs incoming, they want to build a data centre next to me that will make my electricity costs go up, they are automating the consumer help call center. The positive views of AI are really increasingly concentrated amongst some of the tech heavy population.

Honestly, what are the positive viewpoints of generative AI in the end? Are there others major ones than the following? * My vibe coding machine goes brrrrt and that's all I care about * My college essay cheating machine goes brrrt and that's all I care about * My custom waifu/porn-generating machine goes brrrt and that's all I care about * The concept of AI is drawing all the investor money and that's all I care abo…

The funny thing is most of the evangelists aren’t really in the in group and will be just as exposed to the results as the rest of us.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#216

Post by smcg »

throwaway63467 wrote: post #125

For most consumers AI will be a net negative. Already I can tell more and more companies use it in their call centers and support workflows, often just to stonewall customers: they reply very politely and with great attention to detail but will not solve your issue as they don’t have any decision power. I really don’t look forward to this new world, AI is a powerful and useful too for creators but it will and already…

Statistically, customer service bots save a lot of time that humans spend on the customer service side. A lot of them are gathering basic form information that would take up more labor time. If you want more humans in customer service then you'll have to pay a lot more for it, one way or the other.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#217

Post by tonyedgecombe »

JohnFen wrote: post #134
mikeocool wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, I think in the past year “AI” has gone from meaningless buzzword to having a negative connotation amongst the non-tech population. “That’s so AI” is legitimate slang and it does not mean “that’s so cool and automated!”

> having a negative connotation amongst the non-tech population. It has an equally negative connotation to a rather large portion of the tech-savvy population as well.

Isn’t that the case for tech outside of AI as well. My friends that work in tech mostly eschew it when at home. They aren’t connecting their light bulbs to the internet nor buying WiFi enabled fridges.

It seems half of them spend their spare time woodworking or gardening.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#218

Post by maplethorpe »

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #153
Waterluvian wrote: post #16

AI feels like “quick and cheap at the cost of quality” so I completely get why consumers would dislike it while business people love it.

The companies that use AI the best will be those for which you don't have to tell someone they're using AI. That will be the sign of it being a quality product. If you have to scream, shout, and beg your consumers to use your AI product, you're simply doing it wrong.

On the other hand, one of my recent launch posts received comments such as "this is the sort of thing that is now possible with AI!", when I didn't use any AI at all.

Re: Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff

#219

Post by fwip »

aurareturn wrote: post #147
fwip wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're different, but average people dislike both of them.

The average person uses ChatGPT daily. This average person hates how their toaster, washing machine, pencil, eraser now all have "AI capabilities".

These stats are from last year, but in 2025, two-thirds of adult Americans had never used ChatGPT: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/25/34-of-us-...

Another stat I've heard, but can't cite at the moment, is that only 7% of Americans use ChatGPT daily - I think it is likely a bit older than 2025, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to 10 or 20% now.

Everybody lives in their own bubble, and it can be easy to believe that you're in-touch with the public-at-large. That's why you gotta fact-check this stuff.

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