AI Is Coming for Influencer Marketing. Gartner Has the Numbers.

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 the Gartner Marketing Survey, released on 22 September 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 22 September 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 brand marketing has too much AI content, and 57% say that made them distrust the brand.
• 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 22 September 2026, found that 35% of consumers rely on influencers less due to AI. Press coverage of the release, including Fast Company’s write-up, puts the sample at 1,006 U.S. consumers. They were surveyed between May and June 2026.

A few details matter more than the headline:

• 65% of consumers say brands’ marketing materials contain too much AI content.
• 57% say that has made them distrust the brand.
• 43% say they now rely more on real people for shopping information because AI-generated content is so common.

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 coverage, people aren’t swapping influencers for chatbot advice. They’re doubting the content itself, from brands and creators alike. This is consumer trust ai marketing in action: 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 65% of respondents still aren’t saying “stop using creators”. It says 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 blog (search for 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 own January 2026 forecast, reported by Digital Commerce 360, points the same way on agentic AI in marketing. The wider message of marketing trends 2026 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 helps with brand trust in AI search, since AI answers pull from sources that look verifiable.

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. On our work with The Majestic Suites, leads and conversion rose by up to 65%. That came from a site rebuilt around clear room information, fast pages and visible guest proof, not from 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

1. Proof: Open your homepage and top three landing pages. Can a stranger find a named review or a result within one scroll?
2. People: Is there a real team page and a real way to reach a human?
3. Process: Do you explain how you make claims, such as how reviews are collected and how AI is used?
4. Policy: Are pricing, cancellation, returns and privacy easy to read?
5. 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. Our Apex customer experience management system 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 11 October 2026. We’ll update this post if Gartner releases more detail from the survey.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are consumers trusting influencers less because of AI?

According to the Gartner Marketing Survey released on 22 September 2026, 35% of consumers say they rely on influencers less due to AI. It’s a U.S. survey of 1,006 consumers. It shows a trend, not that most people have abandoned influencers.

What is Gartner’s finding on influencers and AI?

Gartner found that 35% of consumers rely on influencers less for shopping information and recommendations because of AI. It also found 65% say brand marketing has too much AI content, and 57% say that has made them distrust the brand.

How is AI changing consumer buying behaviour?

Shoppers are getting more selective. In the Gartner data, 43% say they rely more on real people for shopping information because AI content is so common. Consumers aren’t rejecting AI outright, but they want sources they can verify.

What should brands do when influencer trust declines?

Shift part of the budget toward owned channels such as email, reviews, case studies and search content. Keep creator partnerships with people who have real experience of the product. Don’t cut influencers entirely, since the survey shows falling reliance, not collapse.

How do you build trust on your own website?

Show checkable proof: named testimonials with dates, case studies with measurable results, a real team page, clear policies and honest notes on where you use AI. Then make the next step obvious so trust turns into action.