Study reveals: Why customers prefer reading AI-generated posts to viewing an abandoned company social media profile – Image: Xpert.Digital
Surprising figures: Why silence online is more dangerous for local businesses than artificial intelligence
The new visibility economy: How AI is saving local marketing – without scaring away customers
For local businesses – from the corner shop to the downtown service provider – the crucial place for customer acquisition has definitively shifted to the digital realm. A recent study from 2026 impressively demonstrates that those who lack an online presence lose potential customers even before the first contact. However, the continuous maintenance of social media profiles often fails for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) due to limited time and personnel resources. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers an efficient solution, but is still frequently avoided for fear of a potential loss of trust. Unjustifiably so! The results show that consumers think far more pragmatically in their everyday lives: the timeliness, regularity, and usefulness of information weigh far more heavily on them than whether a text was written by a human or with machine assistance. The following article examines the mechanisms of the new "visibility economy," explains industry-specific differences in customer perception, and shows how companies can strategically use AI without sacrificing credibility.
The new visibility economy: How artificial intelligence is renegotiating local customer relationships
Why silence online is becoming more expensive than any AI panic
Digital visibility for local businesses is no longer a mere nice-to-have, but an economic necessity that determines revenue, customer loyalty, and ultimately the survival of entire business models. A recent study conducted in June 2026 by the market research institute NIQ eBUS on behalf of Greven Medien paints a picture that should serve as a wake-up call for tradespeople, retailers, and service providers alike. The survey polled 1,007 people aged 18 to 74, drawn from a population of approximately 59.3 million German-speaking adults in Germany. The results not only provide a snapshot of consumer behavior but also reveal a structural shift: Digital presence is becoming the key to competing for local customers, while the question of whether artificial intelligence is used is increasingly becoming less important to the vast majority of consumers.
This development warrants a nuanced economic analysis, as it touches upon several levels: consumer behavior in local searches, the resource allocation of small and medium-sized enterprises, the question of brand credibility in the age of generative technologies, and the longer-term shifts in trust towards automatically generated content. Those who consider these connections in isolation underestimate the scope of this change. Those who view them in context recognize that a new economic playing field is emerging, where speed, consistency, and credibility will become the decisive competitive factors.
The digital forecourt of the store: Why local search is becoming the norm
The figures on search intensity speak for themselves. Nearly 60 percent of the consumers surveyed, 59.2 percent to be precise, search online for offers from local and regional providers at least once a month. More than a quarter, namely 26.9 percent, even do so weekly. This routine has become so deeply ingrained in consumers' everyday lives in recent years that it is hardly perceived as a conscious action anymore, but rather as a natural first step before every purchase decision, whether it's for the next hair appointment, the search for a tradesperson for bathroom renovations, or a spontaneous restaurant visit on the weekend.
From an economic perspective, this shifts the point of purchase decision-making. Previously, the storefront, the shop window, or word-of-mouth recommendations determined whether a business was noticed. Today, the first point of contact is, in the vast majority of cases, a screen – be it a smartphone, a tablet, or a laptop. Those who are not findable or whose online presence is not compelling lose the chance of initial contact even before the potential customer has ever physically approached the store. The consequence is an intensification of competition on a new level: it is no longer just shops on the same street competing, but search results, profiles, and posts vying for the attention of the same limited target group.
Particularly noteworthy is that 35.1 percent of respondents explicitly expect regular social media posts from companies, a demand that nearly doubles to 66.4 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds. This age group is growing up in a consumer world where an inactive or abandoned social media profile sends the same signal as a dusty shop window or a handwritten sign with an outdated special offer used to: it signals stagnation, a lack of professionalism, and in the worst case, even business closure. For companies that want to retain this younger target group in the long term, digital inertia is therefore a direct revenue risk and not merely a marketing issue.
Craftsmanship before consulting: How industry logic shapes expectations of social media
The study reveals an interesting difference between industry types that is often overlooked in the public debate about digital marketing. In craft and product-oriented businesses, 15.5 percent of surveyed customers expect regular updates on offers and news. However, for service providers, whose business relationships are based more on personal trust, such as doctors, psychologists, or lawyers, this expectation is noticeably lower at 11.5 percent.
This difference can be easily explained economically. Product-oriented offerings are easier to translate visually and in terms of content into short, recurring formats: new merchandise, seasonal promotions, completed projects, before-and-after comparisons. Consumers benefit directly from up-to-dateness because product ranges, prices, and availability are constantly changing. With trust-based services, however, the frequency of communication is not paramount, but rather its quality and reliability. A patient doesn't expect weekly discounts from their doctor, but rather competence, discretion, and dependability. An overly aggressive social media presence in this segment could even be counterproductive and raise doubts about the professional integrity of the service.
For strategic business consulting, this means that a one-size-fits-all content strategy across all industries is rarely effective. Craft businesses and retailers benefit from frequent updates and visually up-to-date content, while service providers offering credibility goods should focus on substantive content, expertise, and targeted, yet credible posts. The key is to find the right balance between visibility and credibility without missing the mark with the expectations of the target audience.
The quiet break with the AI taboo: Why the origin of content is losing importance
Perhaps the most remarkable finding of the study concerns consumers' attitudes toward artificial intelligence in content creation. For 53.4 percent of respondents, it makes no difference whether a social media post was created with AI support or not. The picture is even clearer when it comes to corporate transparency: 56.5 percent state that it is unimportant to them whether a company openly communicates that its posts were created using artificial intelligence. This indifference is particularly pronounced among people aged 40 and over, who apparently place less value on the technical origin of a post and instead prioritize its practical benefit—that is, reliable, up-to-date, and relevant information.
The size of the place of residence also appears to influence acceptance. In cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, 28.2 percent of respondents rate the use of artificial intelligence positively, a figure that is lower in smaller towns. This suggests an urban-dominated pioneering effect, which can plausibly be explained by a generally higher affinity for technology and a greater familiarity with digital services in urban areas.
These findings from the local context of local businesses, however, do not fit seamlessly into the broader picture painted by other recent studies on consumer trust in AI-generated content. For example, the Ipsos AI Monitor from summer 2026 shows that in Germany, roughly the same number of people feel comfortable with AI-generated brand advertising as they do uncomfortable with it, while a clear majority of 51 percent reject personalized advertising messages generated by AI. At the same time, 75 percent of Germans demand transparent labeling when companies use artificial intelligence in their products and services. A study by market research firm YouGov from the same summer concludes that more than half of Germans trust AI-generated news content less than human-generated content, while only a small percentage say the opposite. International surveys paint an even sharper picture: According to the Sprout Social State of Social Media Report, around nine out of ten social media users surveyed say that AI-generated videos have weakened their trust in news content on social platforms, with misinformation and uncontrolled AI outputs being cited as the main reasons for the loss of trust.
How can these seemingly contradictory findings be reconciled? The answer likely lies in the context and the nature of the content. For everyday, functional information from local businesses, such as opening hours, new products, seasonal offers, or brief project updates, the technical origin is largely irrelevant to consumers, as long as the content is accurate, up-to-date, and useful. The situation is different for topics with greater emotional or societal impact, such as political communication, news content, personalized advertising, or sensitive sectors like food and health. Here, consumer sensitivity to artificially generated content increases noticeably because the perceived risks of manipulation, misinformation, or a lack of authenticity are significantly greater. A study published in August 2026 by Mainz University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with Ipsos impressively confirms this finding: The importance of AI labeling depends heavily on the specific sector and is considerably more relevant for organic food or political parties than for computer games or telecommunications companies.
For local businesses, this translates into a nuanced but fundamentally positive message: In the day-to-day business of customer communication, where timeliness, accessibility, and practical information are paramount, the use of AI-supported tools is far less risky than widespread societal skepticism towards AI would suggest. The crucial factor is not whether a machine contributed to the text, but whether the resulting content is factually accurate, appears professional, and offers clear added value for the reader.
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Consumer study: How customers accept AI content without loss of trust
Recognition deficit and labeling pressure as a double-edged sword
One aspect often underestimated in public debate is the limited ability of many consumers to reliably identify AI-generated content. Studies show that only a small percentage of respondents can say with certainty whether an image or text was created using artificial intelligence. This recognition gap largely explains why the measured acceptance in the Greven study is so high: If the technical origin of a post is difficult for the average consumer to identify anyway, the issue of labeling becomes less pressing in everyday perception.
At the same time, political and social pressure for greater transparency is growing. Surveys from this year show that a clear majority of the population generally supports mandatory labeling of AI-generated content, even if this demand is less urgent in the concrete, everyday consumption of local offerings. This creates a strategic dilemma for companies: Those who proactively and honestly communicate that content is created with AI support currently risk being perceived as less authentic, especially among younger, more critical target groups between 18 and 24 years old, a significant proportion of whom report losing trust in a brand as soon as they learn about its use of AI. Conversely, those who conceal or obscure this risk suffering significantly greater damage to trust if it is later discovered than would have been caused by open communication from the outset.
The most economically sound strategy is therefore likely a hybrid approach: using AI as an efficient background tool without requiring a technical disclaimer for every single contribution, while simultaneously being transparent and responsive to customer inquiries about content creation. This stance also aligns with what respondents over 40 years of age in the Greven study implicitly demand: not technical process transparency for its own sake, but reliable and usable information as a result.
Digital invisibility poses a greater risk than the machine in the background
The study provides a key strategic insight that should guide business leaders: Consumers not only expect local businesses to have a presence on social media, but they also increasingly accept that this content is created with the support of artificial intelligence. Crucial to success are the quality, professionalism, and consistency of the communication, not the tools used to produce it.
Younger consumers are particularly sensitive to the lack of digital offerings. For around a third of 18- to 29-year-olds, a missing or neglected social media presence weighs more heavily than any concern about the use of artificial intelligence in content creation. The managing director of Greven Medien succinctly summarizes this point: A company's social media profiles often shape the first impression. If these appear neglected or outdated, potential customers quickly begin to doubt the company's fundamental trustworthiness. Therefore, anyone who wants to reach customers sustainably must ensure that their posts are current, relevant, and credible, as this is the only way to build the necessary trust in their offerings. Once this trust is established, the question of whether a post was created with or without technical assistance becomes noticeably less important for the majority of customers.
This observation can be categorized within a broader economic principle familiar from behavioral economics: Presence effects—that is, the mere, perceptible existence of an offer at the relevant touchpoint—often have a stronger influence on purchasing decisions than subtle qualitative differences in the content itself. From the perspective of pure visibility logic, a company that communicates regularly but with AI support has an advantage over a competitor that publishes high-quality but infrequent and irregular content. Regularity itself becomes a quality signal, regardless of the production method.
Automation as a response to structural resource shortages in medium-sized businesses
For many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), consistently engaging with social media has historically failed primarily due to one factor: a lack of personnel and time resources. A small craft business with just a few employees can rarely afford its own marketing department to design, produce, and publish new, creative content daily. AI-powered tools address precisely this structural gap by significantly accelerating the creation of texts, image ideas, and post suggestions, thereby considerably reducing the necessary personnel effort.
This automation is fundamentally changing the competitive dynamics between small and large providers. While previously only larger companies with their own marketing teams could manage a consistent social media presence, AI tools now enable even sole proprietors or small family businesses to communicate with comparable frequency and quality. From an economic perspective, this leads to a partial democratization of digital marketing: The barriers to entry for professional visibility are decreasing, while at the same time, customer expectations are rising, as a consistent presence is increasingly perceived as the standard rather than an optional extra.
At the same time, a new risk of homogenization arises. If many companies use similar AI tools with similar templates and writing patterns, there is a risk of content becoming homogenized, making differentiation from the competition more difficult. Companies that use artificial intelligence merely as a fill-in tool without their own editorial touch risk getting lost in the sea of similar content. The real competitive advantage, therefore, does not come solely from the use of technology, but from the skillful combination of AI efficiency and a clearly recognizable, authentic brand voice that incorporates local characteristics, personal stories, and regional connections.
Generation gap and regional differences as a strategic compass
The age differences in the study provide valuable insights for shaping specific communication strategies. While younger target groups have high expectations regarding frequency and digital presence, but at the same time, as other studies show, can react more critically to obvious or unannounced AI use, older consumers exhibit a more pragmatic attitude: While they are less concerned with a high frequency of content, they place even less emphasis on the technical origin of the content, as long as it is useful and reliable.
For companies with a broad, age-diverse target audience, a two-pronged strategy is therefore recommended. With younger target groups, a high communication frequency should be maintained, combined with a credible, ideally personal tone that appears recognizably human and authentic even when AI-supported. With older target groups, content reliability is paramount, while frequency plays a less significant role. Furthermore, the geographical component—that AI acceptance is higher in larger cities than in smaller towns—suggests that companies in urban centers can be more daring in experimenting with visible AI usage, while in more rural regions a more cautious, phased approach seems advisable to avoid unnecessarily straining existing trust.
From tool to question of trust: The longer-term perspective
Looking beyond the immediate findings of the Greven study, a longer-term trend is emerging that is fundamentally redefining the relationship between consumers, companies, and artificial intelligence. Several recent studies indicate that consumers are increasingly differentiating between different levels of AI use: purely background production support, such as in writing or designing content, and active, visible influence on purchasing decisions, for example, through personalized advertising messages or algorithmically refined recommendations. While the former is increasingly seen as a normal, accepted part of professional communication, the latter remains significantly more controversial and is viewed critically or even negatively by a considerable portion of the population.
Interestingly, international studies, such as those from the field of communications consulting, show that consumers now place more trust in generative AI systems for specific purchasing decisions than in traditional social media influencers or conventional advertising, provided the AI responses are comprehensibly reasoned and present genuine alternatives. This suggests a deeper shift: the problem is not the technology itself, but rather the perceived lack of transparency or manipulability of its use. As soon as consumers feel they can understand how and why content or a recommendation is generated, their willingness to trust it increases significantly.
For local businesses, this translates into a clear guideline: Using artificial intelligence in their social media communication is economically sound and accepted by the vast majority of customers, as long as it serves to improve timeliness, accessibility, and content quality. Problems arise when it creates the impression of covert manipulation, impersonal mass processing, or deliberate deception regarding the authenticity of content. The line, therefore, lies less along the lines of the technology itself than in whether it serves the customer or exploits them.
This is how small businesses can use AI without losing their credibility
The available data paints a clear picture: Digital invisibility poses a far greater economic risk for local businesses than the thoughtful, transparent use of artificial intelligence in content creation. Consumers have quickly become accustomed to a high frequency of communication and increasingly expect this from smaller, locally rooted businesses as well. At the same time, public perception of AI-generated everyday content has noticeably relaxed, without this constituting a blanket license for all forms of automated communication.
Companies that want to navigate this transformation strategically should understand artificial intelligence as an efficiency tool that ensures continuity of communication without diluting the authentic, locally rooted voice of their business. Those who combine regularity, high-quality content, and a credible stance will hardly be judged negatively by the technical details of content production in the medium to long term. Conversely, those who continue to rely on digital restraint risk simply disappearing from the view of their target audience, especially among younger and increasingly also middle-aged demographics, long before the question of the origin of a social media post is even raised.
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