One-Third Would Be Very Likely to Buy Again in an AI Ad Scenario, Consumer Research Reveals

An AI-generated ad can produce a happy customer and still weaken the next sale. New survey results point to the timing of disclosure as a central part of that trust calculation.

ContentEngine surveyed 446 U.S. adults about an online advertisement created entirely with artificial intelligence. Everyone in the scenario bought a product they had not planned to purchase and felt satisfied with it afterward. The difference was when they learned about the AI: one group saw the disclosure before buying, while the other found out later that the ad had used AI without telling them.

The headline draws attention to the strongest repeat-purchase category, where about one-third of respondents said they would be very likely to buy again. The broader result is more useful for advertisers: 79.8% of people who saw the disclosure upfront said they would be very or somewhat likely to buy from the advertiser again. That share fell to 67.3% when respondents learned about the AI afterward.

The survey points to a practical problem for brands. Immediate conversion and product satisfaction can coexist with weaker long-term trust when consumers feel that important information was kept from them.

The research used two separate online samples of 223 U.S. adults each. Respondents in the first sample read that the words and images in an online advertisement had been created entirely using AI. They saw that information before the hypothetical purchase.

Respondents in the second sample read the same basic purchase scenario without an upfront disclosure. After they had bought and used the product, they learned that AI had created the ad and that the advertisement had not disclosed it.

Both groups were told that the purchase had been unplanned and that the customer was satisfied with the product. That detail matters. The survey was designed to see how disclosure timing related to trust and future behavior after a positive product experience.

The survey then asked about eight reactions, including trust, repeat purchase intent, regret, feeling misled, recommendation intent, feeling manipulated, the importance of AI disclosure and the importance of human review.

The comparison produced three clear differences:

The figures combine the two most favorable or strongest response categories. For example, the trust result combines people who said they would trust the advertiser a great deal or a fair amount. The survey adjusted its statistical tests across all eight comparisons. Trust, repeat purchase intent and feeling misled remained statistically significant after that adjustment.

A survey of 446 U.S. adults found that consumers reported stronger trust and repeat-purchase intent when an online ad disclosed its use of AI before purchase rather than after a satisfactory purchase. Upfront disclosure was associated with 79.8% very or somewhat likely repeat-purchase intent, compared with 67.3% after later discovery, while feelings of being misled moved in the opposite direction. The findings suggest that disclosure timing, accurate process descriptions and real human accountability should be treated as parts of the customer relationship—not merely production details.

The repeat-purchase result carries a direct business implication. A customer who likes the product may still hesitate to buy from the same advertiser again after learning that AI created the message without disclosure.

The gap was 12.6 percentage points: 79.8% for upfront disclosure compared with 67.3% for later discovery. Trust showed a similar 11.7-point gap. Only 65.0% of respondents in the later-discovery group said they would trust the advertiser a great deal or a fair amount, compared with 76.7% in the upfront group.

Feeling misled moved in the opposite direction. Seventy percent of respondents who learned about the AI afterward said they felt misled a lot or some. That compared with 57.0% among those who had known before buying, a 13-point difference.

The results suggest that consumers treat disclosure as part of the buying relationship. Information delivered before a decision gives people a chance to factor it into their choice. Information delivered after the transaction becomes part of their judgment about the brand’s honesty and process.

That distinction matters even when the product performs well. A strong product experience may support satisfaction, yet the advertiser still owns the communication choice that preceded the purchase. For some consumers, the undisclosed use of AI may raise a separate concern about how the brand handles persuasion, accountability and customer information.

The research measured stated attitudes and intentions in a hypothetical scenario. It does not show how many people would actually stop buying from a brand in a live market. The size and direction of the trust gap still give marketers a concrete reason to take disclosure timing seriously.

Upfront disclosure led to better results on the survey’s main trust measures, but it left considerable discomfort in place.

Among respondents who knew before buying that the ad had been created entirely with AI:

Those answers require some care. The scenario described an advertisement persuading someone to make an unplanned purchase. That persuasive setup may have influenced feelings of manipulation even when the AI use was disclosed. The survey also used an especially strong form of AI involvement: the words and images were described as entirely AI-created.

The research did not ask respondents to explain their answers. Their discomfort could have come from the AI, the unexpected purchase, the persuasive techniques in the ad or a combination of those factors.

That uncertainty still produces a useful warning. A disclosure label should sit inside a broader review of the ad’s claims, imagery, targeting and tone. A brand can follow a disclosure practice and continue to publish work that consumers find overly manipulative or personally unsettling.

The most important lesson is not that disclosure makes AI advertising automatically acceptable. It is that brands control when consumers receive information that may affect their judgment. Early, specific disclosure gives people agency, while post-purchase discovery can make a successful product experience feel like evidence of withheld information. Advertisers should therefore pair transparent labeling with substantive human review and measure trust beyond the immediate conversion.

Support for transparency was broad across both groups. Among all 446 respondents, 90.1% said it was very or somewhat important for brands to tell consumers when an advertisement had been created entirely using AI.

Human review received nearly the same level of support. Some 88.3% said it was very or somewhat important to know that a person had reviewed and approved an AI-generated advertisement before publication.

The two ideas serve different purposes:

The human-review result was almost identical between the samples: 87.9% in the upfront-disclosure group and 88.8% in the later-discovery group. That consistency suggests that consumers value human accountability regardless of whether they feel positive or negative about the timing of the disclosure.

Industry guidance is moving in the same direction. The IAB AI Transparency and Disclosure Framework V2 uses a risk-based, materiality-driven approach to help determine when and how AI involvement should be disclosed in consumer-facing advertising and marketing.

European regulation also gives organizations a responsibility framework to consider. The European Commission’s guidance on Article 50 of the EU AI Act describes the deployer as the legal person under whose authority the AI system is used, such as an advertising company. Employees working under that company’s instructions and control remain part of the organization’s use of the system. The exact obligations depend on the system, use case and applicable law, so brands should treat regulatory guidance as a compliance matter requiring legal review.

The survey supports several concrete operating decisions.

A label shown after a purchase informs a consumer about the production process, but it arrives after the relevant choice. Brands should place material AI disclosures where a person can see them before clicking, buying or submitting information.

The wording should be easy to understand. A vague label such as automated content may leave consumers unsure whether AI wrote the copy, generated the image, selected the audience or performed a minor production task. The amount and type of AI involvement should guide the explanation.

A simple disclosure can explain that AI was used. It cannot, by itself, tell consumers whether a person checked the ad. Brands should document both steps and make the distinction clear in internal workflows.

A consumer-facing notice might use language such as:

This advertisement was created with AI assistance and reviewed and approved by the brand’s marketing team.

That wording would need to match the actual production process. If AI created all of the words and images, the notice should not imply that a person wrote or designed them. If a person made substantial changes, the review process should still be described accurately.

Human review works only when the reviewer can question a claim, reject an image, request a revision or pause publication. A ceremonial approval click creates a record without creating meaningful accountability.

Reviewers should check factual claims, disclosures, visual accuracy, likeness rights, targeting choices and the way the ad frames urgency or scarcity. They should also be able to identify situations where the AI output looks convincing but carries an unsupported implication.

Click-through rates and completed purchases show what happened during the immediate transaction. They leave out reactions that appear later, after consumers learn more about how the ad was made.

Brands can add follow-up measures for trust, perceived honesty, willingness to buy again and comfort with the use of AI. Those questions can reveal whether an efficient campaign creates a longer-term cost.

The findings are useful as a warning and limited as a population estimate. The two groups were separate nonprobability samples recruited through SurveyMonkey Audience. Respondents opted into online panels, and they were not randomly selected from all U.S. adults. The results were not weighted, so they should not be projected to the national population.

Respondents also were not randomly assigned between the two scenarios. Differences in unmeasured traits between the samples could have influenced the answers, even though the groups did not differ significantly on the measured demographic variables.

The scenarios differed in more than timing. The later-discovery version explicitly said that the advertisement had failed to disclose its use of AI. That language may have raised feelings of being misled independently of the timing itself. A randomized experiment with identical wording and only a disclosure-timing change would provide a cleaner causal test.

The hypothetical design adds another constraint. Respondents did not see a real advertisement, spend money or use a real product. Stated trust and purchase intentions can differ from behavior in a marketplace. The results also cover ads described as entirely AI-created. They may not apply to a human-written ad that uses AI for resizing, image variations or minor editing.

Those limits do not remove the practical signal. The survey shows a consistent pattern across the three clearest measures: upfront disclosure was associated with higher trust and repeat intent, while later discovery was associated with more feelings of being misled.

Other research points to a similar transparency challenge, although the methods differ. A 2026 Bentley University-Gallup survey reported that 79% of Americans had seen advertisements in the previous 30 days that looked as if they were made using AI. A Canva report said 70% of consumers believe it will eventually become impossible to tell whether an ad was AI-generated without disclosure.

Consumers may increasingly rely on brands to provide information that visual inspection cannot provide. That makes disclosure a basic part of the ad’s context, similar to information about sponsorship, endorsements or commercial intent.

The ContentEngine survey gives that issue a measurable business angle. When a brand discloses AI use before a purchase, consumers still may feel manipulated, but they report stronger trust and repeat-purchase intent than people who discover the AI later. For advertisers, the operational lesson is straightforward: disclose early, describe the process accurately and keep a person accountable for the final message.