What Trust Really Means in the Age of AI
It’s no longer just about credibility. It’s about context.
Companies have always chased trust.
The go-to move? Posting their values, sharing their mission, declaring their purpose and publishing their “why”, ad nauseam. But that approach has always been a little too on-the-nose for me.
First, talking about your values is still talking about yourself—and most people just don’t care. Second, it often backfires. Instead of building credibility, it feels forced, performative, even suspicious. I’ll call it “echo-chambered virtue-signaling”.
Today, saying you’re trustworthy can be the fastest way to make people doubt you. For a while, this values-first messaging was still considered best practice. But as AI-generated content floods every feed, the potency of that strategy is rapidly fading.
It’s getting harder to stand out—and easier to sound fake.
The Two Faces of Trust
Trust has diversified beyond our traditional definitions.
In some spaces, trust = speed and seamlessness.
In others, trust = voice, values, and vulnerability.
When does trust mean speed?
When I’m buying a toothbrush at 11pm
When I’m booking a ride across town
When I’m resetting my password
In those moments, I don’t need a heartfelt story. I need efficiency that doesn’t let me down.
But when does trust mean vulnerability?
When I’m selecting care for my newborn
When I’m choosing a financial partner
When I’m considering therapy, surgery, or legal help
In those cases, speed doesn’t earn trust. Humanity does.
How AI Muddies The Waters
AI has made it easier than ever to generate content at scale—fast and cheap. And so… we do.
But that content is often optimized for speed, grammar, and volume—not trust.
And here’s the risk:
If you’re in a vulnerability-based business—but your AI content feels robotic, vague, or salesy—you’re not building trust. You’re breaking it. Because buyers don’t just want information. They want to feel understood.
What Does This Means For Brands?
Brands now have to decide:
”What kind of trust are we trying to earn?”
And once they answer that, they need to ask:
”Are we actually signaling that trust—or just generating more ‘good’ content?”
A Practical Framework
Here's how I guide clients if trust is speed and seemlessness:
Focus on UX, clarity, reliability
Make messaging invisible
Prioritize low-friction interaction
AI can own the lane for you
Here's how I guide clients if trust is voice, values, vulnerability:
Focus on tone, story, and transparency
Make messaging unmistakable
Prioritize emotional resonance
AI needs guardrails + human-tuning
Where this is headed
The future of brand trust won’t be one uniform standard. It will be contextual, fluid, and audience-driven.
That means brands who win in this next wave will:
Understand what their buyer needs to feel safe
Use AI without erasing their humanity
Build messaging systems that can scale trust, not just content
The Takeaway
If AI is changing how we write, it's also changing what people believe.
And the question every brand leader should be asking is:
”In our world, what does trust look like—and are we earning it the right way?”
Your message won’t sharpen itself.
Explore how Brand Distillery can help your team get clear, get aligned and move the market.