What if your consumers were no longer passive recipients, but active architects of content—demanding not only personalized experiences but meaningful connection, powered by AI?

As businesses confront continued fragility, expanded disruption, and macroeconomic uncertainty not seen in many recent cycles, growth brought on by having a global scale and cross-border presence is no longer a given. The rules of advantage are shifting—from optimizing for throughput to maximizing for relevance. In this new landscape, the most defensible asset is not low-cost production or global reach; it’s emotional proximity to the consumer. And that proximity is increasingly built through content.

Across the US$750 billion digital content economy, a multi-generational movement is underway. Digital natives—especially Gen Z and millennials—are no longer just consuming; they’re curating, co-creating and trusting AI to deliver tailored experiences at scale. Our global survey of 12,000 adults across five generations and 11 countries reveals that 77 per cent of active AI users trust AI-generated content—a staggering endorsement that signals a generational shift in trust, behaviour, and brand loyalty.

For business leaders navigating geopolitical volatility, this presents both risk and opportunity. AI is not just a technological trend—it is a strategic stabilizer. It enables businesses to pivot faster, engage deeper, and localize smarter. Those humanizing AI—who turn data into dialogue and algorithms into trust—can build lasting, adaptive relationships with the consumers defining tomorrow’s demand.

C-suite leaders have an opportunity to move AI beyond content production to redefine how value is delivered. Those humanizing AI—who transform insight into intelligent, tailored engagement—will win in this attention economy. Those who don’t risk becoming irrelevant in an era defined by hyper-personalization​.

Digital Trust

Trust in AI is a high-stakes emotional negotiation playing out in real time across digital platforms.

Active AI users are true believers, with 77 per cent confidently embracing AI-generated content. AI is not seen as a threat, but a sophisticated daily-life enhancing middleware—doing research, synthesizing news, crafting precise product descriptions, and cutting through information noise.

Take Netflix as an example of AI’s transformative power in content marketing. The platform is using AI to generate dynamic trailers that are uniquely tailored to individual viewing habits. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, its AI analyzes extensive user data to create previews that highlight scenes most likely to captivate each specific viewer, turning trailer watching into a personalized experience.

Amazon takes a similar approach, using AI to distill thousands of product reviews into crisp, digestible summaries. Instead of drowning consumers in a sea of fragmented feedback, its AI generates a single, authoritative paragraph that captures the collective voice of the crowd. It’s like having a shopping buddy who reads every single review and can instantly tell you what most people love—or hate—about a product.

But for the AI-curious who aren’t yet weekly users, skepticism remains. These occasional users view generative AI with a mix of intrigue and apprehension, sensing potential but not yet fully convinced of value. The message is clear: trust is the limit of AI achieving its full potential. That will be the critical currency of this economy-wide digital reinvention.

Radical Transparency

Disclosure has become the new digital handshake—a moment of transparency, even radical honesty, between creators, platforms, and consumers. This movement is taking shape across major platforms. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing has drawn a nuanced line in the sand, now requiring authors to disclose any AI-generated text, images, or translations when publishing books. It’s a bold move that acknowledges the complexity of AI’s role in content creation, differentiating between AI-generated and AI-assisted content and inviting creators to be transparent about technological collaborators.

Netflix further demonstrates this commitment to transparency through its AI-driven content strategy. By using predictive analytics to forecast emerging content preferences and cultural trends, the platform provides insight into how AI can inform strategic content planning. Its approach goes beyond mere recommendation, using AI to anticipate and shape future content investments that resonate with global audiences.

Google’s AI Overviews represent another frontier of disclosure, reimagining search as a conversation rather than a simple query-and-response transaction. Google Gemini works to organize and synthesize search results, essentially saying: “Here’s not just what you searched for, but a smart, contextual understanding of your information needs.” The AI doesn’t hide; it announces its presence, transforming the search experience from a mechanical retrieval to an intelligent dialogue.

For consumers, this transparency is transformative: AI works to augment, illuminate, and unlock new realms of possibility.

Generational Preference

Not all content resonates equally—and generational preferences are redrawing the engagement map. Gen Z and millennials are digital content powerhouses, consuming and shaping content at a scale unmatched by older cohorts. Our research shows that 85 per cent of these younger consumers access video and social media content regularly, compared to just 62 per cent of baby boomers. This isn’t merely a question of volume; it’s a fundamental shift in format preference and trust.

Younger generations gravitate toward formats that are quick, immersive, and highly visual. They are nearly twice as likely as boomers to trust video and social media sources, although both formats remain at a relatively low-trust level. This dichotomy signals a crucial insight: Trust is being redefined not by the source’s institutional weight, but by the perceived relevance, relatability, and personalization of the content.

While the gap narrows for product information and news sites, there’s still a clear digital divide, with Gen Z and millennials showing markedly higher engagement. Podcasts represent the smallest generational gap, though even with that audience, younger generations maintain a notable lead in content consumption.

Advertisers should prioritize video and social media platforms when targeting Gen Z and millennials, as these channels demonstrate the highest engagement for younger generations. By tailoring content and ad strategies to the specific digital preferences of each generation—focusing on quick, visually compelling, and easily discoverable formats for younger audiences—marketers can optimize their reach and effectiveness across different demographic groups.

Humanizing AI Is the New Growth Strategy

In a business climate currently defined by economic and geopolitical uncertainty, CEOs face a pressing mandate: find durable growth amid relentless disruption. AI-powered personalization offers more than marketing advantage—it delivers operational resilience, consumer intimacy, and strategic flexibility. Take Spotify: The streaming company uses generative AI to understand and enhance user music preferences by analyzing vast listening data, creating personalized profiles, and offering AI-powered features like AI DJ and AI Playlist, allowing for hyper-personalized recommendations and experiences.

Being able to differentiate with hyper-relevant, AI-driven experiences is more important than ever. It’s not about using AI for efficiency alone; it’s about adapting how you connect, convert, and retain. Multi-generational consumers will continue to reshape demand dynamics, expecting brands to be intuitive, agile, and real. Leaders humanizing AI will move faster, adapt better, and build trust more deeply.