A Hacker News thread currently approaching 1,000 points and over 500 comments digs into a fresh report from WP VIP called Future of the Web 2026. The findings are something of a wake-up call for anyone who has jumped on the AI hype train in their marketing department.

The short version: people are tired of it. Six in ten American consumers react negatively when a brand actively highlights AI as a selling point. Shouting "powered by AI" is no longer a plus — in many cases, it's the exact opposite.

Marketing departments that thought "AI" was a buzzword are now discovering it can be a dirty word.

This isn't just a vibe — the numbers are fairly clear. 94% of Americans have concerns about AI in marketing, and the three biggest anxiety points are misleading content, job losses, and privacy violations. Only 37% are generally comfortable with marketers using AI at all. And a full 76% believe companies should explicitly disclose when they use it.

What's interesting is the demographics. Younger consumers — particularly those aged 25–34 — are more open to it, but they're also the first to call out a brand when the AI gets something wrong. Gen Z uses more AI than ever, but nearly one in three in that group has actively contacted a brand to correct a mistake made by an AI chatbot. Trust, in other words, isn't free just because your audience is young.

60% of Americans tune out when brands scream 'AI' - Bilde 1

The HN thread is overflowing with people in tech and marketing who recognise this from their own work. Many point out that the problem isn't AI itself, but the hollow signal it sends: "We've cut costs and we're calling it innovation." That's the underlying message consumers are picking up — and they don't like it.

What does this mean going forward? Quite a lot, actually. If the industry doesn't find a way to deploy AI that genuinely feels valuable and transparent to the end user — rather than merely profitable for the company — we could see a backlash that forces stricter labelling and disclosure requirements. The EU is already heading in that direction with the AI Act, and consumer data like this gives policymakers more ammunition.

A caveat: these are early signals based on community discussion and a single industry report. But when an HN thread with nearly a thousand points coalesces around exactly this topic, it's a sign that something is starting to shift — well before it lands in mainstream business media.

Watch this space.