The AI impact on influencer marketing just got a number: 35% of consumers now rely on influencers less for shopping information and recommendations. That’s from a Gartner marketing survey released on September 22, 2026. The implication is simple. If borrowed credibility is getting shakier, the proof on your own website matters more.
Key Takeaways
- Gartner’s marketing survey, released September 22, 2026, found 35% of consumers rely on influencers less for shopping information because of AI.
- The survey covered 1,006 U.S. consumers (May to June 2026), and it is a U.S. snapshot, not a global verdict on influencers.
- The trust problem is wider than influencers: 65% say brands produce too much AI-generated content, and 57% say that has made them less trusting of brand messaging.
- Owned channels are the safest place to move budget, because you control the proof: real reviews, named case studies and transparent claims.
- Audit your site in five steps: proof, people, process, policy and pathway.
What Is the AI Impact on Influencer Marketing, According to Gartner?
Gartner’s survey, published in its newsroom on September 22, 2026, found that 35% of consumers rely on influencers less for shopping information and recommendations due to AI. The survey covered 1,006 U.S. consumers, surveyed between May and June 2026.
A few details matter more than the headline:
- 65% of consumers say brands produce too much AI-generated content.
- 57% say that has made them less trusting of brand messaging overall.
- 43% are now relying more on human expertise, according to Fast Company’s coverage of the survey.
Gartner’s Emily Weiss, Senior Principal Analyst, said consumers aren’t rejecting AI outright. They’re becoming more selective about which content and sources they trust. Keep that line in mind, because it’s easy to overread the 35%.
Why Is AI Eroding Influencer Trust?
Because it’s getting harder to tell what’s real. As synthetic content spreads, shoppers grow more skeptical of anything that looks polished and paid. Influencer posts are often exactly that.
Notice what the data doesn’t say. Per the release and coverage, people aren’t swapping influencers for chatbot advice. They’re doubting the content itself, from brands and creators alike. Skepticism spreads to every channel that can’t show its working.
We’d also be careful with scope. It’s one U.S. survey, and about two thirds of respondents did not report relying less on influencers. Reliance is dropping for about a third of people. Treat it as a direction, not a verdict.
We’ve written before about how fake endorsements damage trust in our post on astroturfing and viral marketing. The same logic applies here: audiences punish anything that feels staged.
What Should Brands Do About the AI Impact on Influencer Marketing?
Don’t panic-cut creators, but shift weight toward channels where you control the evidence. My opinion: move a slice of your influencer budget, not all of it, into an owned media strategy built on reviews, case studies and first-party content.
Gartner’s January 2026 research, reported by Digital Commerce 360, points the same way. It predicted that by 2027 brands will direct 50% of influencer budgets toward authenticity and credibility, and quoted Weiss saying trust is now the most valuable asset in influencer marketing. The wider message is credibility over reach. Where we’d spend instead:
- Email and CRM: people who opted in, with real purchase history.
- Customer reviews and UGC: collected on your site, with names and dates.
- Creators with real credentials: fewer, longer partnerships with people who’ve used the product.
- Search content: pages that answer questions honestly. This also builds brand trust in AI search, since AI answers pull from sources that look verifiable. Our GEO (generative engine optimization) and page speed services focus on exactly this. For how AI tools pick what to quote, see our guide on how LLMs choose sources to cite.
How Do You Build Trust on Your Own Website?
Show evidence a skeptical visitor can check. That means real names, real numbers, real outcomes and plain language about how you work.
Here’s the trust checklist we use when reviewing sites:
- Testimonials with a face and a name, plus the date and the guest or customer type.
- Case studies with measurable results, not adjectives.
- Named team and contact details on an easy-to-find About page.
- Transparency on AI use: say where AI helps (translation, search, drafting) and where humans sign off.
- Clear pricing, policies and guarantees without hunting.
- Third-party proof: review platforms, certifications and awards you can link to.
A Hospitality Example
Hotels feel this first. Guests book on trust and often arrive through creator content, so the direct website has to carry its own proof. The Majestic Suites, for example, centralized guest data on Apex® and recorded a 65% increase in revenue, with better engagement, leads and conversion on its own channels rather than borrowed reach.
You can see how that proof is structured in our hospitality case study. The wider set is in our case studies library. Finance and ecommerce brands should do the same with their own evidence: customer outcomes, security and compliance statements, delivery and returns promises.
A Quick Audit: Five Steps to Check Your Site This Week
- Proof: Open your homepage and top three landing pages. Can a stranger find a named review or a result within one scroll?
- People: Is there a real team page and a real way to reach a human?
- Process: Do you explain how you make claims, such as how reviews are collected and how AI is used?
- Policy: Are pricing, cancellation, returns and privacy easy to read?
- Pathway: After a visitor trusts you, is the next step obvious? Trust that doesn’t lead to a clear action is wasted.
If your CMS makes these updates slow, that’s the real bottleneck. Apex®, the AI-native digital experience platform (DXP), with its GEO-first CMS, lets teams edit proof blocks, publish case studies and keep technical SEO tidy without a developer ticket. Want a second pair of eyes first? Our UX and UI consultants can run this audit with you.
Published October 11, 2026. We’ll update this post if Gartner releases more detail from the survey.
