Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of how businesses create advertisements, but a new national survey suggests New York companies embracing the technology need to be careful about where they draw the line.
Nearly half of Americans have a negative view of businesses using AI to create advertising, according to new research from Bentley University and Gallup. The resistance is particularly strong when companies use artificial intelligence to generate people or voices rather than as a tool to assist human employees.
The findings could carry particular weight for businesses across New York as AI tools make sophisticated advertising cheaper and more accessible to companies that previously couldn’t afford large creative teams or agencies. The survey doesn’t provide state-level results, so it doesn’t measure New Yorkers separately, but it offers a national warning for businesses weighing the cost savings of AI against consumer trust.
AI-generated advertising is already widespread. Seventy-nine percent of Americans surveyed said they had seen an advertisement during the previous 30 days that appeared to have been made using AI.
But familiarity hasn’t translated into enthusiasm.
Gallup found 49% of Americans viewed businesses’ use of AI in advertising negatively, including 25% who felt very negatively about it. Just 19% viewed the practice positively, while 32% were neutral. The findings come from the 2026 Bentley University-Gallup Business in Society Survey, conducted May 4-11.
For New York businesses, the more useful takeaway may be that consumers aren’t rejecting AI altogether. Instead, the results suggest people are drawing a distinction between using artificial intelligence to make employees more productive and using it to replace the human elements of advertising.
Three-quarters of Americans said it’s acceptable for companies to use AI to help employees brainstorm ideas or develop early drafts of advertisements when that use is clearly disclosed.
Acceptance drops when AI takes over more of the finished product. Fifty-three percent said it’s acceptable to use the technology to generate final text, images or videos.
The strongest resistance comes when artificial intelligence substitutes for an actual person.
Sixty-two percent said it’s unacceptable for businesses to use AI to create people or voices in advertisements, even when companies disclose that the content was generated using artificial intelligence.
That distinction could become increasingly relevant for New York’s advertising and small-business economy. Generative AI can dramatically lower the cost of producing marketing materials, particularly for smaller companies without dedicated advertising departments. A business can now use readily available tools to draft copy, produce graphics or create video content that once required substantially more time, money and personnel.
The Gallup findings suggest those efficiencies come with a potential reputational tradeoff. Consumers appear considerably more comfortable with AI working alongside people than with businesses using it to manufacture the appearance or sound of people who don’t exist.
Younger consumers are the most skeptical
Businesses trying to reach younger New Yorkers could face an even bigger challenge.
Adults ages 18 to 29 were the most critical of AI-generated advertising in the survey, with 66% viewing businesses’ use of the technology negatively. That compares with 51% among adults ages 30 to 44, 38% among those 45 to 59 and 46% among adults 60 and older.
Nearly three-quarters of adults under 30 — 73% — said businesses using AI to create people or voices in advertisements is unacceptable.
The generational divide is notable because younger adults have grown up with more digital advertising and are encountering generative AI as it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish some synthetic content from material created conventionally.
Gallup said the findings are consistent with other research showing younger adults becoming increasingly skeptical of artificial intelligence even as the technology becomes more familiar.
The survey also found a political divide. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats and 49% of independents viewed businesses’ use of AI in advertising negatively, compared with 36% of Republicans. Republicans were more likely to view the practice positively and were more receptive to AI-generated final advertising content. Still, majorities across all three political groups opposed using AI to create people or voices.
The question isn’t simply whether businesses use AI
For companies in New York and elsewhere, the survey points toward a more complicated consumer standard than a simple rejection of artificial intelligence.
Americans appear broadly comfortable with businesses using AI behind the scenes to brainstorm, draft and assist employees. They’re less enthusiastic when the technology produces the finished creative product and substantially more skeptical when it replaces human likenesses or voices.
That creates a potential dividing line for companies deciding how aggressively to automate their marketing.
Using AI to help a marketing employee develop a campaign is viewed much differently than presenting an entirely synthetic person as the face of one. Disclosure alone doesn’t eliminate that difference: Nearly two-thirds still rejected AI-generated people and voices even when told the business clearly disclosed their use.
Gallup’s conclusion is that consumers appear willing to accept artificial intelligence as a creative tool but are considerably less comfortable when it replaces people. As businesses expand their use of the technology, researchers said the way companies deploy AI could ultimately influence how consumers view those businesses.
For New York companies looking at AI primarily as a way to produce more advertising at a lower cost, that’s an important distinction: The technology may make creating an ad easier, but that doesn’t necessarily mean consumers want everything in the ad to be artificial.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.