Generating Trust: How The Public Perceives Results From AI Vs. Organic Search

While publishers rightfully worry about AI’s apparent inability to attribute properly — and, of course, the ramifications that failure has in an increasingly AI-centric world of Search — one hurdle they’ll have to clear is the trust that consumers are building in the technology.

According to a new Attest report, 43% trust information given by an AI tool, with 27% using genAI for at least half of their internet searching.

“As consumers become more familiar with AI in retail, some fears around the technology are abating, while more people are starting to see the benefits,” says The Consumer Adoption of AI Report.

And while much of the report focused on consumers and their interactions with brands, there’s plenty of insights for publishers about AI and its perception among audiences who use the technology, particularly in the 43% who trust genAI the same as organic search results and 40% who find genAI results to be more trustworthy.

 (Source: Attest)

“Only 17% trust AI results less than the links that regular search engines return,” the report says. “It appears that getting mentioned by Gen AI could provide a halo effect. … It could even be more effective than Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising because nearly 41% of consumers agree that they trust Gen AI search results more than paid search results (while just 15% trust it less).”

As for the future of Search, only 15.5% expect a decrease in their use of normal search engines, which would obviously seem like a benefit to Google and its integration of AI Overviews among its search results. At the same time, 60% predict an increase in genAI for search in the next 6 months.