WordPress VIP says brands are gaining more traffic from AI search platforms, but many consumers remain cautious about AI-generated answers and want clear links to original sources. Its new report found that companies must balance visibility in AI results with content that readers consider transparent and trustworthy.
The report is based on an April survey of 2,000 respondents, including 800 enterprise decision-makers and chief marketing officers and 1,200 adults in the United States.
Consumers Remain Skeptical of AI Answers
Sixty percent of US consumers said brands that use “AI” in their messaging are less appealing. Another 86% said they do not fully trust AI and still want access to the original material behind generated answers.
The report also found that 42% of consumers trust unattributed AI answers less than airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills. Nearly three-quarters said the internet feels less human than it did 10 years ago.
Clear attribution remains an important trust signal. Thirty-three percent of consumers said clicking through to an original source was their leading way to assess whether information could be trusted.
Brian Alvey, chief technology officer at WordPress VIP, said publishers now need to make their websites understandable to AI systems while retaining content that feels credible to human readers.
“Now you have to build websites for AI agents acting on behalf of those people,” Alvey said. “If your site’s content isn’t legible to AI, you are invisible to a growing share of how people search.”
Businesses Report More Traffic From AI Platforms
Despite consumer concerns, 60% of enterprise respondents said referrals from AI search engines and answer platforms had increased during the previous year. Seventy-four percent described AI discoverability and attribution as a main or significant business priority.
Companies are adapting as users increasingly receive summarized answers without visiting traditional search results. However, the findings suggest that appearing in an AI response does not automatically create trust, especially when the answer lacks a visible source.
The report also found that 80% of consumers believe online information should remain openly accessible rather than being controlled by a small number of large organizations.
That position reflects Automattic’s support for open-source publishing and open web technologies. The company owns WordPress VIP, contributes to the open-source WordPress project, and has supported decentralized protocols such as ActivityPub.
Featured image credits: Matheus Bertelli
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