Gen Z is tired of AI. Will they choose your business?

AI in marketing is developing faster than audience trust

The world of artificial intelligence is developing at a pace we could hardly have imagined in the past. New tools, options and updates appear constantly. Younger generations use them very willingly, whether in education, work or everyday life. But when we look not at how young people use AI themselves, but at how they react to brands that base their communication on content and graphics generated by algorithms, such as leaflets, posters, banners, social media posts, visuals or even entire websites, the situation changes dramatically.

Would I be exaggerating if I wrote here and now, very directly, that Gen Z has had enough of colourful, generic and soulless AI creations that business owners try to push at them from every direction as advertising for their products or services?

Absolutely not. And to avoid making empty claims, there are official numbers and reliable statistics to support this.

Gen Z is increasingly distrustful of AI-generated advertising

Gen Z is no longer just indifferent to this phenomenon. More and more often, they simply feel tired and distrustful. According to a January 2026 study by IAB and Sonata Insights, tellingly titled “The AI Ad Gap Widens”, as many as 39% of Gen Z respondents declare a negative or rather negative attitude towards advertisements created by artificial intelligence. That is almost twice as high as among millennials.

What is also significant is that only 45% of the combined Gen Z and millennial group feel “very or somewhat positive” towards such creative assets. Marketers, meanwhile, often live in a completely different world. They believe this figure reaches as high as 82%. This deep perception gap has widened in just one year from 32 to 37 percentage points and, it seems, continues to grow.

Let’s go further, because the same research shows that Gen Z is much more likely than older groups to describe brands using artificial intelligence in advertising as “inauthentic” – 30%, “out of touch” – 26%, and “unethical” – 24%. They do not see it as saving time. They see laziness and lack of respect. When an advert, leaflet or website looks as if it was generated in a few seconds, perfectly smooth, without a single imperfection, without any trace of human intention, they simply ignore it. Or worse, they lose trust in the entire brand.

“AI-bland” design and the problem with authenticity

Experiences with UX and UI only deepen this divide. Gen Z, raised on TikTok, Instagram and Discord, has almost a sixth sense for this. They immediately sense when an interface feels typically “AI-bland”. Everything, at least at first glance, may be technically correct, but it feels cold, lifeless and without character. It lacks that hard-to-define vibe that makes a person want to stay on the page a little longer and simply look around.

When a website or app is too perfect, too smooth and too predictable, it immediately creates an unpleasant impression that nobody really put any heart into it. And heart, as it seems when looking at all these numbers, remains, surprisingly to many people, exactly what this generation is still looking for the most.

That is why they are so drawn to UGC, meaning content created by ordinary users. Because there, even if something is imperfect, you can feel authenticity. You can feel the human hand.

What does this mean for businesses using AI in marketing?

To sum up, if you use AI to create marketing for your business, stop for a moment and think whether you may be overdoing it. Because in reality, it seems that Gen Z is not afraid of AI as a tool. They are afraid of its excess in the very things meant to convince them to buy. And they are making it increasingly clear: they would rather pay for something touched by a human hand than receive a perfectly generated illusion for free.