Baringa study explores shifting US consumer preferences around the consumption of AI-generated content

As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent and more indistinguishable from content generated by humans, many consumers are grappling with questions around authenticity, provenance and the potential for distortion of the content itself and what we value in it.

In our Human in the Machine insight series, we looked to gain a better understanding of consumers’ attitudes toward AI in the creative and communication industries, how those attitudes are evolving and the implications that may follow. Our findings were based on Baringa’s proprietary research and the results of global surveys of more than 5,000 respondents across the US, UK, Europe and Australia conducted in March 2024 and January 2025.

This research shines a light on how consumers perceive AI and what we see is a nuanced and sometimes contradictory picture.

Consumer Preferences Around the Consumption of AI-Generated Content Unexpectedly Shift Despite Renewed Controversy

Amid renewed controversy surrounding the use of AI in two Oscar-winning films, we found that 3 in 4 US consumers would want to know if the content they were consuming was created by AI. Yet, this marks a slight drop from 2024 (81%), as consumer preferences around the consumption of AI-generated content appear to be subsiding slightly despite growing industry concern. We also found that 61% of US consumers want creative companies to be open about what AI they use and 57% want to see visible labeling for how much AI is in a particular piece of content, with both figures representing a decline in sentiments captured in 2024 (69% and 69%).

Despite these slowing concerns, more than half of respondents (53%) said they would be uncomfortable consuming content where AI was used to assist human creators. And two-thirds of respondents said they would be uncomfortable with consuming content completely generated by AI.

Consumer Are Growing Less Concerned About AI Misuse and Oversight

Only one-third of Americans (36%) believe AI is a force for good. However, our research shows that consumers are less worried about AI misuse (45% - down from 52%) and the risk of misinformation (45% - down from 54%) compared to a year ago.

Consumers are also less concerned about wanting governments to closely regulate the use of AI (53% - down from 59%) and regulation on where AI can/cannot be used to displace human work (57% - down from 67%). In a corresponding shift, 36% of consumers are concerned about AI resulting in job displacement for those in the creative industry – a decline from 42% in 2024.

Women Are Growing More Concerned About AI Use While Concerns Among Men Diminish 

Men and women are diverging in their concerns around the use of AI. We found that 46% of men believe AI is a force for good compared to only 26% of women who shared the same belief. Three in four women (76%) said they would not be comfortable or would have reservations with consuming content without knowing whether it had been entirely generated by AI, while nearly half of women (48%) said they would never be happy to consume entirely AI-generated content under any circumstances (compared to 62% and 36% of men, respectively).

Trust is essential for AI’s seamless integration into our world and transparency will need to be at the foundation of that trust. Many consumers recognize the inevitable rise of AI within the creative and communications industries as nearly half (48%) believe that most content will be AI-generated with some human input within the next 5 years.

Read more about our aggregate survey insights and what it means to be finding ourselves in a world of AI-enabled content and communication below:

• Truth - People value what they know most: other people

• Quality - Quality has a price to be paid, or risk a race to the bottom

• Trust - Transparency earns trust, and right now there isn’t enough of either
• Control - Protect and empower, the real frontier of our relationship with AI