One Day Independent Research
Made By AI. Trusted By Consumers?
Research led by One Day: Made By AI. Trusted By Consumers?
Does knowing an advert was created using AI change trust, attention or purchase consideration?
AI is becoming a normal part of advertising production. Brands can use it to edit images, write copy, create voiceovers, generate people and even produce entire campaigns. The technology is moving quickly, but consumer acceptance is proving harder to automate.
In this One Day Independent Research, we wanted to understand how the use of AI advertising changes the way people respond. We asked whether it affects trust, attention and purchase consideration, which uses feel acceptable and how brands should disclose it.
To understand these evolving habits, we surveyed 1,000 UK consumers. The findings reveal a difficult balance for advertisers. Consumers want transparency, but the disclosure itself may reduce attention, weaken trust and make people less likely to buy.
For brands, using AI responsibly means thinking beyond what the technology can produce and considering how the audience will judge the finished work.
63% Say AI-Made Ads Would Reduce Trust
Knowing that an advert was created using AI has an effect on brand trust for 63% of consumers. A further 25% say it would make no difference, while only 4% believe AI involvement would increase their trust. The remaining 8% are unsure.
This creates a clear credibility gap for AI-made advertising. Consumers are not rejecting every use of the technology, but awareness of its involvement changes how the brand is judged. For advertisers, the challenge is no longer only whether AI can make the work. It is whether the finished advert still feels credible, intentional and worthy of trust.
AI Use Reaches 38% Rejection
Consumer acceptance remains limited across suggested uses of AI in advertising. Editing images, writing advertising copy and creating music or voiceovers each receive 28% approval, while generating an entire advert is accepted by 21% and creating fictional people by 20%.
More significantly, 38% select “none of these”, making outright rejection the most common response. Consumers appear more comfortable with AI assisting the production process than replacing it entirely, but brands cannot assume that behind-the-scenes uses will automatically be accepted.
72% Want AI Use Disclosed Every Time
A clear 72% majority believe brands should disclose the use of AI in every case, rather than only when the technology creates realistic or potentially misleading content. A further 17% believe disclosure should be required when AI depicts realistic people or events.
Only 7% would limit disclosure to adverts that are mostly AI-generated, while 4% do not believe disclosure should be required at all. The expectation is therefore broader than warning consumers about deepfakes or synthetic people. Audiences increasingly view AI involvement itself as information they have a right to know.
An AI Label Could Cost Attention
An AI label would make 49% of consumers pay less attention to an advert, compared with only 8% who say it would make them pay more attention. A further 34% expect their attention to remain unchanged, while 9% are unsure.
This suggests that disclosure may protect transparency while creating a new attention problem. For almost half of the audience, an AI label risks acting as a reason to disengage before the advert has had an opportunity to communicate its message. Brands will need to treat disclosure as part of the creative experience, rather than a compliance element added at the end.
47% Would Scroll Past a Labelled Ad
Scrolling past or ignoring the advert is the most likely response to an AI label, selected by 47% of consumers. Another 24% say the label would not change their behaviour, while only 10% would research the brand, 9% would look into how AI was used and 5% would click the advert.
Taken together, active curiosity and engagement account for 24% of responses—the same proportion who expect no behavioural change. An AI label may answer the transparency question, but it does not automatically give consumers a reason to stay, watch or engage.
AI Involvement = Less Likely to Buy
More than half of consumers say AI involvement would reduce their likelihood of buying the advertised product or service. This includes 30% who would be much less likely to purchase and 26% who would be somewhat less likely.
A further 32% say AI would have no effect on their decision, while only 3% would become more likely to buy. The impact therefore moves beyond perceptions of the advert itself and into commercial consideration. If AI use makes the brand feel less authentic or trustworthy, the cost may be measured in lost purchases rather than creative preference alone.
Visibility Beats Fine Print
Consumers favour disclosure formats that are clear and visible at the point where the advert appears. A label placed directly on the advert is the leading choice at 63%, closely followed by a standardised icon at 58%. Captions or descriptions are selected by 36%, while 40% support a disclaimer at the end.
Less visible options receive weaker support, with 23% choosing terms and conditions and 16% selecting information on the brand’s website. Only 2% believe disclosure is unnecessary. Audiences do not want to search for information about AI use; they expect it to be immediately recognisable and consistently presented.
Responsibility Should Be Shared
Shared responsibility between brands, platforms, regulators and AI providers is the leading choice at 37%. However, brands and advertisers also receive the largest individual share of responsibility at 32%, well ahead of regulators at 15%, AI providers at 7% and advertising platforms at 4%.
Taken together, 69% place brands either solely or collectively at the centre of clear AI labelling. Consumers may recognise that AI advertising involves several parts of the supply chain, but they still expect the advertiser whose name appears on the work to take ownership. Responsibility cannot disappear between the technology, the platform and the brand.
What does this mean for brands?
Advertising Strategy Update
AI gives advertisers new ways to produce, adapt and scale creative work, but faster production does not automatically create stronger advertising. The findings show that consumers are already assessing AI-made work through the lenses of trust, authenticity and transparency.
Based on this consumer data, brands need an AI advertising strategy that considers how the work is made, how its use is disclosed and whether the final creative still gives the audience a reason to care.
72% Want Disclosure, but 49% Would Pay Less Attention
The clearest tension in the research is the relationship between transparency and attention. Consumers overwhelmingly expect brands to disclose AI use, yet almost half say an AI label would make them pay less attention to the advert.
This does not mean brands should hide AI involvement. It means a disclosure label cannot be expected to create trust on its own. If the advert already feels impersonal, artificial or disconnected from the brand, the label may confirm the audience’s concerns rather than reassure them.
Suggested approach:
Build disclosure into the creative process from the beginning. Decide how the AI label or icon will appear before formats are produced, rather than adding it as an afterthought.
The advert still needs a strong idea, recognisable brand assets and a clear reason to engage. Transparency should support the work, not become the most memorable part of it.
69% Place Brands at the Centre of Responsibility
Responsibility may be shared across the advertising ecosystem, but consumers still place brands at its centre. A combined 69% believe the brand is responsible either directly or alongside platforms, regulators and AI providers.
This reflects a simple audience expectation: the name on the advert owns the outcome. Consumers are unlikely to separate the decisions made by an AI supplier, creative partner or media platform from the brand that approved and published the work.
Suggested approach:
Create a clear internal policy covering how AI can be used, who approves the work and how that use will be disclosed. The policy should extend to agencies, freelancers, production partners and technology suppliers.
Brands should also keep records of where AI was used and what human checks took place. Shared responsibility works only when every party understands its role and there is a clear final owner.
AI Efficiency Cannot Come at the Cost of Trust
The data shows that consumers are not evaluating AI advertising purely on visual quality. They are also making judgements about honesty, authenticity, responsibility and whether the brand values human creativity.
This creates a difficult but useful distinction. AI can make advertising production more efficient, but efficiency is an internal benefit. The audience still needs to receive something valuable in return: a better idea, a more relevant message, clearer information or a more useful experience.
For brands, the opportunity is not to make as much AI content as possible. It is to use the technology selectively, maintain visible human judgement and be open about the role it played. The strongest AI advertising will not ask consumers to admire the tool. It will give them a reason to trust the brand behind it.
Learn more about AI Creative, Creative Services, and Digital Services.
Frequently Asked Questions.
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One Day Agency surveyed 1000 UK consumers to understand how people respond when artificial intelligence is used in advertising.
The research asked respondents how AI involvement would affect brand trust, attention and purchase consideration. It also explored which uses of AI are considered acceptable, whether brands should disclose its use, how those disclosures should appear and who should be responsible for clear labelling.
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Yes. We commissioned this study ourselves, through the YouGov platform, to get an unbiased view of the market.
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We surveyed 1,000 people in the UK across a spread of adult age groups.
The sample included:
18-24: 7%
25-34: 17%
35-44: 22%
45-54: 19%
55+: 35%
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AI is becoming increasingly involved in the advertising process, but consumers may not always know when or how it has been used.
Disclosure is therefore becoming an important question for brands. The research shows that audiences expect transparency, yet the presence of a label can also reduce attention and encourage people to scroll past. Understanding this tension helps brands communicate AI use without treating disclosure as a simple tick-box exercise.
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Brands should use the findings to create clearer rules around when, why and how AI is used in advertising.
The data suggests five clear priorities:
First, use AI selectively. A faster production process is not valuable if it weakens the idea or damages trust.
Second, keep meaningful human oversight. Concepts, claims, visuals and final outputs should be reviewed by people who understand the brand and the audience.
Third, make disclosure visible. Consumers prefer labels and standardised icons placed directly on the advert rather than information hidden elsewhere.
Fourth, design for attention. An AI label may prompt people to disengage, so the creative needs to earn interest quickly through relevance, clarity and a strong brand idea.
Finally, keep the brand accountable. Suppliers and platforms may share responsibility, but consumers still expect the advertiser to own the outcome
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