---
type: claim
domain: entertainment
description: "Consumer enthusiasm for AI-generated creator content dropped from 60% to 26% between 2023-2025 while AI quality improved, indicating rejection is identity-driven not capability-driven"
confidence: likely
source: "Billion Dollar Boy survey (July 2025, 4,000 consumers ages 16+ in US and UK); Goldman Sachs survey (August 2025); CivicScience survey (July 2025)"
created: 2026-03-11
depends_on: ["GenAI adoption in entertainment will be gated by consumer acceptance not technology capability"]
---

# Consumer acceptance of AI creative content is declining despite improving quality because the authenticity signal itself becomes more valuable as AI-human distinction erodes

Consumer enthusiasm for AI-generated creator content collapsed from 60% in 2023 to 26% in 2025—a 57% decline over two years—during a period when AI generation quality was objectively improving. This inverse relationship between quality and acceptance reveals that consumer resistance is not primarily a quality problem but an identity and values problem.

The Billion Dollar Boy survey (July 2025, 4,000 consumers ages 16+ in US and UK) shows that 32% of consumers now say AI is negatively disrupting the creator economy, up from 18% in 2023. The emergence and mainstream adoption of the term "AI slop" as a consumer label for AI-generated content is itself a memetic marker—consumers have developed shared language for rejection, which typically precedes organized resistance.

Crucially, Goldman Sachs data (August 2025) reveals that consumer AI rejection is use-case specific, not categorical: 54% of Gen Z prefer no AI involvement in creative work, but only 13% feel this way about shopping. This divergence demonstrates that consumers distinguish between AI as an efficiency tool (shopping) versus AI as a creative replacement (content). The resistance is specifically protective of the authenticity and humanity of creative expression.

The timing is significant: this acceptance collapse occurred while major brands like Coca-Cola continued releasing AI-generated content, suggesting a widening disconnect between corporate practice and consumer preference. CivicScience data (July 2025) shows 31% of consumers say AI in ads makes them less likely to pick a brand, indicating this resistance has commercial consequences.

## Evidence
- Billion Dollar Boy survey (July 2025): 4,000 consumers ages 16+ in US and UK plus 1,000 creators and 1,000 senior marketers
- Consumer enthusiasm for AI-generated creator work: 60% (2023) → 26% (2025)
- 32% say AI negatively disrupts creator economy (up from 18% in 2023)
- Goldman Sachs survey (August 2025): 54% Gen Z reject AI in creative work vs. 13% in shopping
- CivicScience (July 2025): 31% say AI in ads makes them less likely to pick a brand
- "AI slop" term achieving mainstream usage as consumer rejection label

## Challenges
The data is specific to creator content and may not generalize to all entertainment formats. Interactive AI experiences or AI-assisted (rather than AI-generated) content may face different acceptance dynamics. The surveys capture stated preferences, which may differ from revealed preferences in actual consumption behavior. The source material does not provide independent verification of the 60%→26% figure beyond eMarketer's citation of Billion Dollar Boy.

---

Relevant Notes:
- [[GenAI adoption in entertainment will be gated by consumer acceptance not technology capability]]
- [[human-made-is-becoming-a-premium-label-analogous-to-organic-as-AI-generated-content-becomes-dominant]]
- [[consumer-rejection-of-ai-generated-ads-intensifies-as-ai-quality-improves-disproving-the-exposure-leads-to-acceptance-hypothesis]]
- [[the-advertiser-consumer-ai-perception-gap-is-a-widening-structural-misalignment-not-a-temporal-communications-lag]]

Topics:
- domains/entertainment/_map
- foundations/cultural-dynamics/_map
