Trust as a product, not as an intangible
My read: trust stops being an intangible and becomes a feature you design, measure and optimise. Exactly like you optimise a checkout.
If an AI can convince 46% of people to download a junk app, any serious operator should be thinking about how to build REAL trust systems at the same speed. Because the average user is no longer going to be able to tell the real from the fake by eye.
The operational play: stop selling "we're trustworthy" and start showing verifiable proof. Cases with names attached. Auditable metrics. Open processes. Clear contracts. Video testimonials without the weird editing.
In an environment where AI manufactures smoke that's indistinguishable from the real product, whoever shows their guts wins. And whoever sticks to pretty copy loses.
My bet: the coming years will brutally reward brands that build verification mechanisms by default. Not as marketing. As architecture.
What I learned
I've been chewing on something for a while: the easier it is to generate content with AI, the less the content itself is worth and the more what's behind it is worth.
It sounds obvious, but it changes decisions. If publishing a post costs nothing, publishing a post proves nothing. If recording a testimonial with AI is trivial, a generic testimonial is worthless.
What goes up in price is what can't be faked: real relationships, real execution, verifiable results, a face and a pair of eyes.
My conclusion this week is uncomfortable for anyone who makes a living from appearances: the ground is shifting towards the demonstrable. And there's no prompt shortcut there.
On the radar
- Google DeepMind launches Gemini Robotics 2, its vision-language-action model for controlling everything from robotic arms to humanoids. Software is eating the physical world too. Watch out if you only think in screens.
- Google AI Studio lets you build apps by talking to Gemini, without writing code. The technical barrier to shipping product is approaching zero. The distribution barrier is as high as ever.
- Memory chip shortage from the AI data centre boom: smartphone shipments in China down 17% year on year in June, according to Goldman Sachs. AI is already reordering entire supply chains. Someone is going to pay the bill and it won't always be you.
- An AI company sues a town to build a data centre next to a national park. The conflict between AI infrastructure and land is going to be the new NIMBY. And it's going to get louder.
The actionable advice
Take your main landing page and do this exercise today: delete any sentence an AI could have written about any company in the world. "We're leaders", "we transform", "tailored solutions". Out. Replace it with concrete facts: real client names, numbers you can defend, screenshots, processes. If when you finish your landing page still sounds like your competitor's, you don't have a copy problem. You have a positioning problem.
Behind VIVIO
At VIVIO we live in the eye of this storm. Influencer marketing is literally a trust market: brands paying for the credibility a creator has built with their audience.
If AI can manufacture convincing synthetic creators, talking avatars, generated testimonials and inflated engagement, the entire sector needs a serious verification layer. Not optional. By default.
My product view: over the coming years, the influencer marketing platforms that win won't be the ones with the biggest catalogue, but the ones offering the most credible guarantees. Auditable data, verified identity, metrics cross-checked against independent sources.
That's the direction we want to push. Smoke is worth less and less.
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