Forty-Five Per Cent of Australians Would Trust a Brand Less if Its Ads Were AI-Generated. The Disclosure Question Is Now a Brand Question.
New YouGov research shows 45% of Australians would trust a brand less if they discovered its ads were mainly AI-generated. 86% want disclosure. The research was fielded across 1,046 adults in May 2026 and reframes AI creative production from a cost question into a brand-risk question.
Brands that primarily use AI for ad creation are making 40% of Australians uneasy. The fix is not technology. It is disclosure and craft.
Fresh YouGov research has put a number on a trust problem Australian marketers have been quietly working around. 45% of Australians say they would trust a brand less if they found out its ads were mainly generated by AI. 21% would trust the brand much less. Only 25% are comfortable with AI-generated ads at all. 86% want brands to disclose when ads have been created mainly using AI.
The study was conducted online between 7 and 12 May 2026 across 1,046 Australians aged 18 and over. Demographic breakouts add nuance. Men, Gen Z and Millennials are more comfortable with AI-generated advertising than women and older cohorts. The trust gap is wider than expected once you cross 40.
The research lands at a moment when most marketing leadership conversations are about how much AI can be embedded into creative production to cut costs. The YouGov findings make the trade-off concrete. AI in production is fine. AI in disclosed final output is a brand risk. AI in hidden final output is a much larger brand risk if the audience finds out.
Why it matters
The Australian creative industry has been moving fast on AI tooling. Asset Studio, Adobe Firefly, Midjourney and Runway are inside every major agency workflow. The cost savings are real. The YouGov data is the first widely cited Australian sample that quantifies the consumer-trust trade-off, and it is sharp enough to force a board-level conversation.
The disclosure question is also rapidly becoming a regulatory one. The IAB Australia has published guidance on AI in advertising. The ACCC has flagged the issue. Brands that decline to disclose now will face a worse choice in 18 months when the rules tighten.
The brands most exposed are the ones that have leaned hardest into AI-generated faces, voices and product shots in social and display. The brands least exposed are the ones using AI for production efficiency behind clearly authored, human-led campaigns.
Australians who believe brands should clearly disclose when advertisements have been created mainly using AI, per the May 2026 YouGov sample
What to do about it
Write an AI disclosure policy this quarter. Default position. Voluntary disclosure today is cheaper than mandatory disclosure later.
Audit the last 90 days of paid creative. Tag every asset by AI involvement (none, behind the scenes, partial generation, primarily generated). Quantify your exposure.
Test disclosure language with your audience. Saying "created with AI assistance" vs "generated by AI" carries very different trust implications. Run the experiment.
Establish a craft floor. Even AI-generated assets should clear the same brand-quality bar your in-house creative team applies. Most failures are not AI failures. They are taste failures.
Brief media buyers and influencer partners. If your brand discloses, your network needs to as well. Mixed signals cost more trust than clean honesty.
AI in advertising is not the brand risk. Hidden AI in advertising is. The brands that disclose first will be the brands consumers learn to trust as the rest of the industry catches up.