Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast. Episode 148: Paul Bannister Shares Research on How Consumers Feel About AI-Generated Content
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Nov 14, 2025 Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer at Raptive and expert in publisher monetization, shares intriguing research on consumer reactions to AI-generated content. He reveals that unclear labeling decreases trust significantly, with suspicion affecting credibility more than the content itself. Bannister explains how traffic declines vary by content type, with smaller sites facing the harshest challenges. He also discusses the importance of strong branding in mitigating search volatility, and how reducing ad clutter can enhance both user experience and revenue.
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Labeling Crucially Impacts Trust
- Surveyed readers trusted clearly labeled AI content only slightly less than human content when the AI writing was high quality.
- Unlabeled content that readers suspected was AI suffered major trust drops of 30–50%.
Experience With AI Drives Nonlinear Trust
- Trust vs. AI experience followed a U-shaped curve across users.
- Moderate AI users trusted AI content most while novices and heavy users were most skeptical.
Stated Preferences Don’t Always Predict Behavior
- Comfort with AI varies by vertical: simple factual lookups scored high while personal stories scored low.
- Survey preferences didn't fully match behavior; parenting content showed stated rejection yet traffic fell heavily there.