A few wrong words can reduce connection, as well as curiosity.
A recent set of experiments by Yang and Tian tested something simple, with significant consequences:
What happens when you TELL customers a product was “AI-designed”?
Across categories like perfumes and snacks, purchase intent collapsed.
By as much as 28–29%.
That’s enough to mean product failure. Your margins probably aren’t that big.
Participants also perceived way less human involvement in those products.
Which is where the real issue starts.
People buy decisions made by people they feel aligned with … like taste, judgment and intent.
When a product is labeled “AI-designed,” that whole chain gets interrupted.
There’s no one you can relate to.
No one to credit, or to blame if something goes off the rails.
No neck to choke.
Just mysterious, non-human, untrusted, unaccountable output.
The study DID find a simple workaround.
When products were framed as human-AI collaboration, purchase intent returned to levels similar to fully human-designed products.
Same tools, probably an even more accurate statement, and yet a totally different sales result.
This ties straight to something product makers and marketers can easily underestimate:
Clear connection drives TRUST.
We prefer products created by (or at least closely overseen by) folks who seem to be somewhat like us, whose breath can fog a mirror and who show signs of understanding us.
AI, at least for now, doesn’t carry that signal at all. Which creates a yecchy kind of tension.
AI is becoming central to how products are designed, and that won’t change direction.
But announcing it too bluntly can sabotage perceived value.
So the question isn’t whether to use AI. (As an innovator, you have to.)
It’s how you frame the authorship.
WHO gets the credit, then?
Who does your customer believe made the product for them?
Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing consultants at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.