Consumer Trust at Odds with AI Usage, Getty Report Shows

Earlier this year, photo giant Getty Images came out with a comprehensive report drawing on the global perspectives of over 30,000 adults (7,500 per survey) in 25 countries for the period between 2022 and 2024. Named ‘Building Trust in the Age of AI’, the report offered valuable insight into consumer attitudes towards AI-generated content in advertising, as well as its impact on customer trust in brands.

The report highlighted the critical importance of authenticity when it comes to consumer engagement with brands, specifically those which employ AI-generated imagery. It turned out that 90% of global consumers wanted to know whether an image has been crafted using AI, while 98% agreed that ‘authentic’ images and videos are pivotal in establishing trust.

Healthcare and pharmaceuticals emerged among the industries with the highest levels of consumer trust, along with financial services and travel, but were also expected to be the most transparent.

Importantly, people felt less favourably towards brands that used AI to generate visuals of people or products specifically. 

Getty employed VisualGPS - their cutting-edge visual and creative intelligence platform that provides brands, marketers, and creatives with insights on content usage across demographics and industries - to complete the research. 

In fact, the company has been closely tracking global consumer sentiment on AI since launching VisualGPS in 2020. “Back then, AI was not as prevalent in society as it is today,” says Jacqueline Bourke, senior director, creative EMEA at Getty Images. 

Fast forward to today, AI is everywhere and is disrupting every industry across every medium. This is why Getty have decided to launch the report this year, when it’s become more important than ever for businesses to understand how consumers feel about it before implementing it into their workflow. 

While Jacqueline says there weren’t any major surprises in the report’s outcomes, she admits to have not expected Europeans to place such huge emphasis on the value of authenticity in visual storytelling. 

“The findings show that 98% of Europeans either agree or strongly agree that ‘authentic’ images and videos are pivotal in establishing trust,” she says. “Authenticity has come into sharp focus for consumers in this new age of AI, especially in a world where people are already becoming sceptical of what they are seeing online. Earnestness is a theme in Europe with a preference for seeing something that is sincere and honest.”

Another important theme that emerged is the paradox among Europeans on AI adoption and AI anxiety. “This is a trend that has continued to come through in our research ever since we started tracking AI sentiment in 2020. While Europeans do see the benefits of AI on productivity, there is a 50/50 split among those who are excited and nervous about the technology.”

Apparently, British and French consumers in particular are the most nervous about AI, while Germans are the most excited. Europeans as a whole are, according to Jacqueline, likely to be late adopters of AI as a result of their anxieties. This is why, she says, “brands need to tread carefully between Europeans’ enthusiasm and apprehension,” when considering AI adoption and campaign creation aimed at the continent’s markets.

However, AI is far from being the only perpetrator of trust issues among customers. Its emergence is but one of many factors that consumers consider when choosing a brand to either purchase from or do business with. Just take a look at this article we did six months ago, that explored the reasons why consumers have become warier as time has gone on. 

Jacqueline outlines some of the other important factors to consider: “The brand’s commitment to ESG to their DE&I initiatives, and whether these align with their values. Our research shows that 83% of Europeans believe that companies have a moral obligation to use their resources to improve society and the environment.

“Sustainability is also having a huge impact on consumer purchasing habits in Europe – from everyday household items to travel holidays.”

When looking at DE&I up close, work-life balance and mental health have become increasingly intertwined in a hybrid world, with over 80% of European respondents to the research stating that mental health issues should be openly discussed in the workplace. 

Additionally, Jacqueline says that people tend to place more trust in the authenticity of an image if it has been made or created by creative professionals. Against what AI enthusiasts might have you believe, craft still matters and adds another layer of credibility “in an already oversaturated marketing ecosystem.”

What cuts through all of these themes is one thing – telling the truth. Jacqueline says that “consumers believe it is important for businesses to be transparent in their DE&I and sustainability practices, to show that they practise what they preach.”

All this to say, there isn’t a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of using AI – it’s all about knowing if it is the right tool to use to achieve the brand’s end goal for the message it might want to land with audiences. “AI is great at visualising concepts that are either expensive or hard to recreate in real life,” explains Jacqueline. 

“Instead, consider using high-quality, pre-shot images to connect with your audience, especially if you are telling stories of real people in real-life scenarios.” Jacqueline believes that this goes beyond just aesthetics and that brands need to make sure they are mitigating risk by using AI responsibly, respecting intellectual property rights and meeting consumer expectations.

“These are all variables that continue to evolve at a fast rate,” she says. “Europeans are less likely to say that they can easily tell the difference between a real image and one that has been manipulated. This pinpoints the importance of taking a nuanced approach to transparent communication around AI-generated content, including watermarking or applying messaging alongside AI-generated images that have been created with AI.”

When looking at the industries of interest that emerged from the report, Jacqueline focuses on pharmaceuticals. She explains that the feedback Getty Images has received from European pharmaceutical companies has been generally positive when it comes to using AI technology for detecting diseases early and saving patients’ lives.

When it comes to generative AI in pharmaceuticals, however, marketers in the field are more inclined to use pre-shot images for public campaigns, as the industry is heavily regulated. “Their feelings on generative AI adoption echo the paradox we have seen in the report from European consumers,” Jacqueline adds. “Pharmaceutical brands are positive about the possibilities of AI for creative content overall, however, some have expressed concerns about how the tools can be used to spread misinformation.”

Getty’s findings show that this particular sentiment is industry-agnostic too. “Amid the rise of deepfakes and AI-generated imagery on social media feeds, 86% of Europeans say they no longer trust social media to be real or accurate.” While previously being seen as a source of ‘real content’ that was unavailable on mainstream media at the time, today the prevalence of ‘fake’ imagery created with heavy retouching has lowered its respectability. But Jacqueline is categorical:

According to her, before even thinking about using gen AI tools, marketers should question what their campaign messages are and whether AI is really the right approach to use in the storytelling. 

“Generative AI tools do not know of, nor experience, what is going on in the world beyond their training sets. It only has access to the past and does not consider people’s opinions of a brand or product of the present.

“Our VisualGPS research shows that the human touch continues to be an important element in forging those connections. This is consistent with the reaction we have received from our collections – #ShowUs, The Disability Collection and The Disrupt Ageing Collection - all of which have either been informed by or created by the people that they represent.”