Study: 50% of consumers can tell if copies are AI-generated

The use of AI in campaigns has become increasingly prevalent and in tandem, consumer awareness of the tell-tale signs of non-human generated content with 50% being able to spot AI-generated copies.

Interestingly, millennials were the most successful at spotting non-human content which comes as no surprise as the demographic is also the most likely to use AI when creating content.

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These were the results of digital asset management provider Bynder’s ‘human touch’ survey which presented respondents with two articles where one was written by ChatGPT and the other by a trained copywriter with the same brief.

Interestingly, the survey also revealed that 56% of participants said that they preferred the AI version over the human-made article. 52% of consumers cited that they would become less engaged if they suspect a copy is AI-generated.

In contrast, participants aged 16 to 24 were the only age group to find the content created by a human more engaging than the AI-generated version (55%).

Consumer perception of brands using AI

When it comes to how consumers perceive brands that use AI-generated content on various platforms, 82% do not mind if brands use AI to write copy as long as it feels like it was written by a human.

However, 26% of participants would feel the brand is impersonal if the website copy does not feel like it was written by a human which poses a challenge to brands as consumers are better able to discern between AI-generated and non-AI-generated copies.

In fact, 20% would feel that the brand is lazy.

Similarly, 25% of consumers would feel a brand is impersonal if their social media copy appears to be AI-generated while 20% would perceive a brand to be untrustworthy.

20% of consumers would also feel that brands that use AI-generated social media copies are lazy and 19% would think the brands are uncreative.

Moreover, if a consumer is interacting with a chatbot that they suspect is AI-generated, over 30% would think the associated brand is impersonal.

As 63% of consumers would rather AI-generated content be disclosed, brands face the issue of developing more humanlike AI-generated content to appeal to consumers or disclosing the information and risk lower engagement and negative perceptions.

“As AI advances and an increasing number of marketers use it for content creation, it’s important that we don’t lose sight of best practice,” said Warren Daniels, chief marketing officer at Bynder.

“Our research goes to show that as AI use increases, the most important element of a marketing campaign should be the human touch,” he added.

While consumers are better able to discern between AI-generated and human-written content, it was found in a survey by Capgemini Research Institute that 70% of Singaporean consumers, compared to 73% of consumers globally, trust content created by generative AI.

This spans across many aspects of life, from financial planning and medical diagnosis, to even relationship advice.

Join us on 12 June 2024 for an exciting experience as Content360 makes its debut in Malaysia! Brace yourself to join the crème de la crème of the content marketing industry hailing from across the region. Immerse yourself in a dynamic atmosphere, and uncover the latest trends with thought leaders and solution providers from the realm of content.

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