Validity Research Reveals Consumers Let AI Curate Their Inboxes, While Marketers Struggle to Keep Up

New Validity research reveals widespread uncertainty on both sides of the inbox as AI reshapes how marketing messages are created, filtered and interpreted

BOSTON, June 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As AI changes how consumers discover products and interact with brand content, marketers lack the visibility, strategy and measurement tools to keep pace. That's the key finding of new data from Validity, the leading provider of AI-powered marketing success. Drawing on responses from more than 500 U.S. marketers and 1,000 U.S. consumers, the research exposes a growing disconnect: marketers are betting big on AI, while consumers are using AI to tune them out.

• For more information and to download the full reports, visit the Marketer Survey and Consumer Survey landing pages.

For marketers, the uncertainty begins internally. Nearly half report having only a limited or basic understanding of how consumers use generative AI for product discovery and purchasing decisions. At the same time, 44% expect agentic commerce to meaningfully impact their business within the next 12 months.

Consumers, meanwhile, are also navigating unfamiliar territory. More than half (55%) of consumers now make decisions based on AI-generated email summaries alone, without reading the full email. That includes 35% who skip the full email, 15% who choose not to open it, and 5% who delete based on the summary alone. Additionally, 40% say they are less likely to trust marketing emails they know were written by AI.

"Marketers and consumers are at an inflection point," said Cynthia Price, SVP of Marketing at Validity. "Brands are scaling campaigns with AI, while consumers are letting AI tools curate their inboxes—and that shift creates a real opening for the brands that get ahead of it. The ones who invest in smarter measurement, optimize for AI-driven discovery, and get their foundational data in order won't just stay visible—they'll pull ahead."

Key findings from the reports include:

• Marketers and consumers are interacting with email in different ways. While 43% of marketers plan to increase email investment this year, 1 in 5 consumers is already making inbox decisions based on AI summaries alone, never opening the full message.
• Consumer adoption of AI for shopping is accelerating faster than marketers' awareness of it. While 31% of consumers say they use AI for product research more than they did a year ago, 49% of marketers have only a limited or basic understanding of this shift, and 74% cannot measure it when it happens.
• Marketers and consumers both have significant data anxieties, but they are worrying about opposite things. While 25% of marketers cite poor internal data quality as a top barrier to AI adoption, 25% of consumers cite misuse of their personal data as their number one concern about AI marketing.
• Brands are scaling AI content at the exact moment consumer trust in AI-generated marketing is most fragile. 40% of consumers say they would trust a retailer's emails less if they knew they were written by AI, yet 74% of marketers are already deploying or testing AI content. Meanwhile, 15% of consumers have already turned off AI email features entirely, and only 10% completely trust AI summaries to accurately represent email content.

Validity is helping marketers navigate this uncertainty with Validity Engage, its next-generation AI email platform. As AI reshapes both how campaigns are created and how consumers receive them, marketers need tools that give them confidence in their data, their content, and their results. Engage delivers exactly that—helping teams identify risks earlier, optimize for deliverability and engagement, and make smarter decisions—so every send drives maximum campaign ROI.

About Validity
For over 25 years, thousands of the world's leading brands have relied on Validity solutions to achieve AI-powered marketing success—using trustworthy data as a key advantage. Validity's platform Engage is transforming the ability of these leaders to drive better engagement from their digital campaigns, bringing higher productivity, lower costs, and ultimately faster growth. For more information, visit Validity.com and connect with us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact
Christy Dean
PANBlast for Validity
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SOURCE Validity