People aren’t buying the AI promise. Here’s how tech brands can fix it

Commencement season is officially upon us. This uniquely American tradition offers a platform for business and political leaders to speak directly to the next generation. But today, how graduates respond to their speeches is often just as important as what these leaders say.

If you are an AI business, this should give you some concern. In his commencement address to the University of Arizona, Eric Schmidt, erstwhile Google CEO, was roundly booed for making the claim that AI would “shape the world.” For B2B tech marketers and AI communications leaders, moments like this signal a growing AI trust problem that brands can no longer ignore.

And this was no isolated incident. Real-estate exec Gloria Caulfield was booed after calling AI “the next industrial revolution” at her speech to the University of Central Florida. Meanwhile, Big Machine Records’ CEO Scott Borchetta was given a similar treatment at Middle Tennessee State University when talking about the role of AI in music.

The very people who will be most immediately affected by AI have taken a look and decided they’re not buying it.

The AI backlash is growing

And AI skepticism isn’t limited to graduates. UK and US studies show that broader sentiment is shifting against the technology. According to a recent YouGov survey, 39% of Americans and 38% of Britons have a negative perception of AI, compared to just 25% in both regions that have a positive outlook. 

I would also point you in the direction of this recent meta compilation of numerous major AI sentiment studies. It shows that  “every available measure—partisan, demographic, regional, longitudinal—points in the same direction: Americans don’t want AI data centers near them, don’t trust AI in general, and don’t like the people building AI.” So there we are.

AI has become a proxy for economic anxiety

Why is this happening? It’s a question worthy of a doctoral thesis, and I won’t attempt even a short summary here. However, one thing does seem to stand out for me. Increasingly, AI is becoming the lightning rod for broader frustrations around inequality. With many people struggling to get by, AI is coming to be seen as just another get-rich-quick scheme for “Big Tech;” one that will have little or no trickle down benefits for you ordinary Joe or Jane. 

A UK study by King’s College London backs this up. The majority of the public (65%) and employers (58%) predict that AI’s economic benefits will mainly go to wealthy investors and large companies, rather than workers or society as a whole. No wonder AI evangelists are being booed. For many audiences, AI has become synonymous with economic anxiety rather than innovation or opportunity.

This need not be the case. We at SourceCode are AI pragmatists. We know that the technology can and does have beneficial effects for workers because we see it every day. There most definitely is a positive case to be made for the technology that goes beyond glassy-eyed tech utopianism. The challenge for B2B tech marketing teams is communicating AI value in ways that feel tangible, credible, and human-centered.

Back to first principles 

For this to happen, tech leaders need to remember the first rule of successful communications: start with your audience. Silicon Valley has got a little too caught up focusing on how AI will enrich them, that they’ve forgotten to take their audience on the journey (beyond some wooly comments around how “AI will make everything wonderful at some time in the future” that is). That disconnect is increasingly shaping public perception of AI brands and undermining trust in AI messaging.

Americans worried about today’s geopolitical turmoil and economic volatility want to know how AI can tangibly help them now. They need a reason to feel optimistic about the technology, rather than fearful for their futures. For AI companies, rebuilding trust starts with demonstrating practical value instead of relying on abstract promises about the future.

I believe that the product is there. It’s just that the market fit has been overlooked. Until that gap is addressed, the audience is just going to keep on booing.