AI is changing what a digital brand experience looks and feels like.
It shapes what people see online and how brands respond to them. As more of that experience is generated or automated, customers are deciding whether it still feels credible, relevant and responsibly delivered.
UAE consumers are notably optimistic about this shift. At 69.2%, nearly seven in ten believe AI will improve digital authenticity, compared with 39.2% of the full sample. More than four in five, 83.1%, are comfortable with brands using AI to personalize their digital experiences, compared with 57.7% overall. That optimism sits alongside high expectations. In the UAE, 68.0% say they have reduced their engagement, switched brands or stopped using one after a digital experience felt untrustworthy, inconsistent or inauthentic. Across the full sample, that figure is 58.1%.
UAE consumers are ready to see what AI can add, and they expect the resulting experience to live up to that potential.
What the Digital Authenticity Index found
The Digital Authenticity Index defines digital authenticity as the extent to which a brand's digital experiences feel credible, relevant and responsibly delivered. The research, conducted by Sitecore in partnership with Ipsos, surveyed 4,047 adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and United Arab Emirates. This report looks closely at the 1,016 UAE participants.
69.2%
83.1%
92.6%
68.0%
15.8
UAE consumers see more potential in AI
AI is affecting brand authenticity online by shaping more of the content, recommendations and service interactions customers encounter. The UAE data suggests consumers see more upside in that shift than the full sample.
In the UAE, 69.2% believe AI will improve digital authenticity. The comparable figures are 39.2% for the full sample, 32.8% in the US and 24.4% in the UK. A separate question found that 90.9% of UAE consumers agree AI is useful and beneficial when brands use it responsibly, compared with 79.8% of the full sample and 72.2% in the UK. UAE consumers also report confidence in recognizing the technology. Four in five, 80.7%, say AI or AI-generated marketing content is easy to spot, compared with 60.1% of the full sample and 47.6% in the UK. This is a measure of consumers' own perceptions, rather than a test of their ability to identify AI-generated content.
For brands, the finding is an invitation to make the value of AI visible in the experience. Faster help, more useful recommendations and content that fits the moment can all support digital authenticity when the result feels credible, relevant and responsibly delivered. The technology does not make an experience authentic by itself; customers still judge what reaches them.
Personalization has room to work
Personalization supports digital authenticity when it makes an experience more relevant without weakening confidence in how it was produced. The UAE findings indicate a higher level of comfort with that exchange than the full sample.
83.1%
21.4%
18.5%
28.1%
These findings indicate that some UAE consumers recognize useful personalization, thoughtful automation and transparent data use as positive signals. Content strategists and customer experience teams can act on that by giving each personalized message a clear purpose, keeping claims accurate and explaining data use in plain language when customers need context.
Disclosure remains part of the picture.
Undisclosed use of generative AI content decreases trust for 39.5% of UAE consumers. That is lower than the 65.0% recorded across the full sample and 78.2% in the UK, but it still represents almost two in five UAE respondents.
A market that is comfortable with AI has not given brands permission to make its role invisible.
Responsibility remains the largest gap
The wider research on consumer trust in AI-powered experiences gives these UAE findings additional context. The UAE records a smaller digital authenticity gap than the full sample, but the remaining distance is concentrated in responsibility.
Across the nine signals measured by the Index, the average UAE gap between importance and perceived brand performance is 9.0 percentage points. The full-sample average is 21.6 points. Within the UAE, the Responsibility pillar has a 13.1-point gap, compared with 6.6 points for Credibility and 7.3 points for Relevance.
Transparency is the widest individual signal gap in the UAE at 15.8 percentage points. Perceived Brand Intent follows at 12.1 points, with Human Accountability at 11.5 points. These results make responsibility the clearest area for improvement, even in a market where consumers rate overall delivery more positively.
The threats to digital authenticity are equally practical. Among UAE consumers, the most frequently selected trust breakers are no clear way to reach a human when needed at 32.9%, inaccurate or misleading information at 31.6%, privacy and security concerns at 30.9%, and overly automated or robotic interactions at 28.2%.
Each is selected less often in the UAE than in the full sample. The corresponding full-sample figures are 46.2% for a lack of human access, 40.2% for inaccurate or misleading information, 32.0% for privacy and security concerns, and 32.7% for overly robotic interactions. Even so, the UAE results leave little room for complacency. Accuracy, transparency and access to accountable people remain visible parts of the customer experience.
That matters because 92.6% of UAE participants say digital authenticity should be a top or high priority for future brand investment, compared with 85.9% of the full sample and 80.0% in the UK. A further 91.4% say brands need to do more, compared with 88.5% of the full sample.
The future looks more human
UAE consumers are more positive about the future of human interaction in digital brand experiences than the full sample and UK participants. Only 20.1% of UAE consumers say the human touch has worsened during the past two years. That compares with 50.9% of the full sample and 67.3% in the UK. Looking ahead, 49.8% in the UAE expect the human touch to improve during the next two years, compared with 25.6% of the full sample and 12.9% in the UK.
The difference is also clear among those who expect a decline. In the UAE, 20.4% expect human touch to get worse, compared with 50.2% of the full sample and 66.2% in the UK.
This positive outlook doesn’t remove the need for human support. It gives brands a strong reason to design AI and human service as one experience. Automation can handle routine work, while a clear handoff gives customers access to a person when the issue becomes complex, sensitive or simply frustrating. The quality of that handoff matters as much as the speed of the automated response.
CMO action plan
Start with the customer benefit
UAE consumers are open to AI, so the first question for a new use case should be what it improves for them. Define the customer problem, the intended benefit and the standard the experience must meet before it goes live. Test the output as an experience, not only as a piece of technology.
Give personalization a clear purpose
Use customer data to make content and recommendations more relevant, then remove personalization that adds noise or feels difficult to explain. Give people meaningful control over how their information shapes the experience. Comfort with personalization is an opportunity to be useful, not a substitute for good data practice.
Put accuracy into the workflow
Inaccurate or misleading information is one of the most frequently selected trust breakers among UAE consumers. Give AI-assisted content clear owners, approved sources and a review path that matches the risk of the claim. High-volume content still needs someone accountable for what it says.
Make responsibility visible
Transparency is the widest individual signal gap in the UAE. Explain the role of AI when that knowledge could affect a customer's decision or confidence, and state how personal data is being used in language people can understand. The goal is useful context, not a layer of legal copy around every interaction.
Keep a person within reach
Make the route to human support easy to find, especially in high-stakes or emotionally charged journeys, and carry the customer's context into the handoff so they don’t have to start from scratch. Human accountability becomes real when customers can reach someone able to resolve the problem.
Read the UAE on its own terms
The differences between the UAE and the full sample show why a single global assumption about AI can hide meaningful variation. Track credibility, relevance and responsibility in each priority market, then pair those signals with behavioral and customer feedback data. The Index records consumers' reported actions and perceptions; brands should use their own data to understand how those attitudes show up in engagement and retention.
UAE consumers are giving brands a promising starting point. They report strong confidence in AI's potential, high comfort with AI-powered personalization and a positive view of the future human touch. They also expect brands to improve and say they pull back when experiences feel inauthentic.
Digital authenticity gives marketing and customer experience leaders a practical standard for responding. Make the experience credible, relevant and responsibly delivered, then measure whether customers see it the same way. UAE consumers are ready to see what AI can add, leaving brands with the job of making that confidence worthwhile.