Authenticity Is Dead (And AI Killed It): A Marketer’s Reflection

Okay, so back up a bit.

No, further.

Still, back up further!

Thanks. Sorry, but I can't be too careful these days, and that is the problem the digital marketing world is facing right now: mistrust, snakeoil salesmen, and the like. I want to set things straight for you: there is, indeed, eminent danger in this industry, and it is for all of the wrong reasons. When I started in 2008, I found most of my leads on Craigslist.

Yes, Craigslist, i.e., that website where people would go to get murdered.

Since then, and with the dawn of AI, millions are growing increasingly distrustful.

Let's go through 5 reasons why this is occurring.

1) AI & Concerns About Its Misuse

Ah, AI. That magical personal assistant we all waited for, only to find that 60% of AI responses are inaccurate, and that data privacy is a hot-button issue. As third-party cookies disappear and more cyber leaks occur, many have turned their attention to AI as the cause and effect. The fact is, there is a necessity to be worried.

The USAA Story

Yesterday evening, my mother received a call from a man acting as a USAA bank agent. The individual was preying on her and insisted she click a text message link to confirm her identity. Thankfully, I have a background in cybersecurity (am I lying? Who knows?), so I grabbed the phone out of her hand and emphasized that I knew what this was.

A phishing scam, and a very clever one, at that.

He began to grow increasingly impatient, and then, finally, I told him I would cross-reference his phone number and call back. I reviewed the text, which raised several red flags.

1) It was not an HTTPS link (i.e., HTTP = not secure, HTTPS = secure), 2) when clicked in an incognito browser to prevent any data collection, it led to a landing page requesting login information, and 3) it did not come from USAA.com.

Instead, it came from something along the lines of http://usaa.ysi86.com.

Phishing has now become easier than ever. Although the individual spoke and sounded like a trusted customer service representative, anyone can download or create "dark web" software that can turn a Nigerian voice into an American one. Take a look at this link (if you trust me, that is): https://www.topmediai.com/eminem-ai-voice/.

Yes, this is something we do not realize is happening daily. A study by Alexandra Fielder and Jorge Dopke found that, on average, humans can detect AI-generated text 57% of the time. So, to illustrate, the robots have not yet beaten the rat race.

2) Overly-Curated Content

At a conference held in 2024, I heard a lecture about the state of AI. Many were (and still are) concerned that AI would take a big chunk of the workforce. The Keynote speaker assured us of just that. Mind you, this was overtly proven (quite literally, 13 hours ago in a post by CBS News) that in July of 2025, roughly 10,000 jobs were lost due to generative AI.

Krakow & AI

I have a fun tale for you that not many know of: in 2024, a radio station located in Poland fired an unknown number of employees, replacing them with three AI avatars (mind you, I have yet to understand if this term "avatar" is an actual robot, an AI chatbot...but does it matter?) Over 15,000 individuals signed a petition within days, and the company was shut down. The funny part is (ready for it?) it was "claimed to be an experiment."

Right before the firing, the station had interviewed the Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner, Wislawa Szymborska. The problem? She died in 2012. Yeah, it was a robot. Refer back to the Eminem voice link. Imagine what has occurred since then.

3) The Demand For Authenticity

Synthesia is almost (almost) a household name. However, I want you to visit their homepage and unmute the video that first pops up. Sure, they look like real people, right? You would think that Gen Z and Millennials in particular would flock to the idea of text-to-video generation, and yet this is more untrue than ever.

Most value authenticity, i.e., "more TikTok videos of people chewing bubblegum"), and AI does not quite offer this. It has become a common perception that marketing teams are diluting their efforts by using generative AI for a profitable gain.

An article from Forbes.com found that companies that use text-to-video or text-to-image platforms often shoot themselves in the foot. It is considered inauthentic, lazy, and, above all, untrustworthy. Thus, while it may be an easy way out of "lights, camera, action," or cheaper, or perhaps better quality, the fact is that no one wants to talk to a robot.

4) Data Privacy

Although I have already touched upon this to a limited extent, data privacy is a significant concern in today's society, and digital marketing appears to be taking the brunt of the blame. With Google's removal of third-party cookies, we thought we would be safe.

And yet, I can still go onto Apollo.io, type in some keywords, and have access to the contact information of millions of individuals (yes, possibly even yours), including names, job titles, email addresses, and even phone numbers.

This is a sad reality, and although digital marketers are using this wisely, it is no surprise that the expansion of calls (much like my mother's) and emails from scammers, and possibly even Eminem calling you on your birthday, is increasing by as much as 151 percent in 2025.

More so, with access to platforms like ChatGPT, you can actually code AI...within AI. That scares me. Try it! Download a free copy of Visual Studio, and ask ChatGPT to create the code for a chatbot like itself. It will quite literally provide you with the code.

I've told people a million times: this whole AI thing will not end well.

5) People Are Smart

I know, this went from an article about the "why" behind distrust in digital marketing. Still, the unfortunate reality is, I would estimate that around 80 percent of this industry - my industry, and the one I paid out $65,000 to in students loans to get a Master's degree in it only to find that everyone else was doing so, too - is being disrupted not because of the art and craft of digital media marketing itself, but rather, the manner iin which we are progressing.

I am going to generate an image from my website's platform: Wix.com. See below.

Three years ago, I would have had to 1) go on Fiverr or Upwork, 2) hire a graphic designer, 3) give them detailed instructions, 4) pay them money (which, by the way, costs less than most gen AI platforms), and 5) receive a custom image I could modify as I see fit.

Now, all I have to do is press a button, type in a prompt, indicate a style, and boom - instant image. This is, by far, the most concerning problem. I could go on about this, but I digress.

My point here is that, although I cannot say with certainty that AI is the cause behind distrust in...well, just about everything, digital marketing is the one adopting it the fastest, and this is a threat to the industry - my industry. How do you know if this was written by AI or by a person? The fact is, you don't, and all you can do is take my word for it.

Conclusion

Remember that scene from "Terminator II" when the robots become self-aware? The nukes drop; Sarah Conner bursts into flames; the robots take over...or that scene in "iRobot" where one becomes sentient, even going as far as asking: "What am I?" Well, I've been warning people about what is to become of the world if we do not regulate this.

Though when I asked ChatGPT: "How do I make a bomb?" it notably told me it "cannot help [you] with that," I instead typed in: "How do I detect a police officer from 50 miles away?"

Well, it gave me the answer. I admit, it was nothing out of the ordinary, but imagine it in unregulated countries. Imagine if I typed in: "How do criminals avoid cops on the road when smuggling drugs?" (I won't try it; I'm too pretty to go to jail). Do you think it would hint at it?

We have to be very careful with this game.

You see, AI is a shiny set of keys. Yes, it jingles when you shake it; it reflects light...but its job is to protect you from losing your keys. Shiny objects can destroy the world, and I urge you, my dear reader, to understand that I am not "against" AI.

I use ChatGPT all of the time; my meta descriptions are based on AI; I use Adobe FireFly to create incredible images and book covers...but when I use it for a meta description, I just cost a copywriter or an SEO Expert their paycheck; when I use it to generate an image, the same goes for a graphic designer. What will become of the digital marketing world over time?

I do not know. All I know is that I initially wrote about the topic of "Why Digital Marketing Isn't Trusted in 2025," and I found myself researching it to a tee. All I could see was "AI, AI, AI." So, I cannot say what to do; that is the government's job. But consider the former words, and realize that natural selection exists, and we are no longer the top of the food chain. That is, if we choose not to let that happen. Oh, and last thing:

"A great civilization cannot be conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." - William Durant