More than eight in ten Australians no longer trust what they read online, and most are now doing their own research before spending.
Australians have always been sceptical. But something has shifted.
The Changing Landscape of Discovery and Trust report, released today by Oysterly Media and based on a survey of 1,200 Australians, puts hard numbers on a feeling many small business owners have been noticing in their marketing results. Customers are harder to reach, slower to convert, and more likely to go looking for verification before they spend.
The numbers are striking. Some 81.3 per cent of respondents worry that fake or manipulated reviews are becoming more common. Another 77.8 per cent say it is getting harder to tell what is genuinely independent content versus sponsored. Close to half, 45 per cent, say one of the hardest parts of searching today is simply knowing what to trust.
“The Trust Crisis is a daily reality for Australians trying to make informed decisions right now,” said Melissa Laurie, CEO of Oysterly Media. “The volume of content online has never been higher, but confidence in that content is at an all-time low. It is also concerning that almost 80 per cent of respondents find it difficult to tell sponsored content from genuine editorial.”
The consequence for businesses is direct. Around 82 per cent of consumers have read a fake review in the past year. When customers cannot tell the real from the manufactured, they compensate by checking more sources, trusting fewer claims, and relying more heavily on people they already know.
The Oysterly findings sit alongside the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, which found that overall trust in business, government, media and NGOs in Australia rose from 49 per cent in 2025 to 54 per cent in 2026, shifting the country from distrust into neutral territory, but that trust remains fragile and is unevenly distributed. For small businesses, neutral is not good enough. A customer sitting on the fence about whether to trust you will simply move on.
How different generations check you out
The Oysterly research reveals that customers across every age group are doing their own verification, but they are doing it differently.
Gen Z are the most active fact-checkers and the most specific about what they are looking for. More than one in four, 27.8 per cent, want real user experience videos when searching on social media. Some 22.1 per cent actively look for legitimacy signals before they engage with a brand, and 20.9 per cent are looking for photos of the actual product or service.
They are also more likely than older cohorts to turn to online communities for guidance. Some 26.5 per cent of Gen Z trust short-form video such as Reels, TikToks and Shorts, 22.6 per cent turn to Reddit, and 14.5 per cent trust influencers, a figure lower than many brands assume.
Millennials follow a similar pattern. Some 57.1 per cent say niche communities are more useful than mainstream social feeds for purchase decisions, compared with 41.7 per cent of Gen X.
“The opportunity for brands is to demonstrate authenticity and become easier to verify through creator content, real demonstrations, community signals and visible evidence,” Laurie said. “Gen Z and Millennials are not waiting to be told a brand is trustworthy. They want to see real experiences by real people.”
For SME owners, this is a practical signal. Polished brand advertising is less persuasive than a genuine customer video. A five-star rating with no context is less convincing than a detailed review from a real person. Community presence on forums or niche groups carries more weight than a boosted social post.
Globally, people who trust influencers say they would trust or consider trusting a company they currently distrust if it were vouched for by someone they already trust, such as a food or lifestyle influencer, with the figure at 62 per cent among those who trust one. For small businesses with limited marketing budgets, this points to the value of micro-influencers and genuine customer advocates over broad advertising spend.
AI is making it worse
The trust problem is not standing still. Artificial intelligence is accelerating it. Nearly three quarters of Australians, 72.2 per cent, are concerned that AI will make it harder to distinguish real and trustworthy content from fake. And 81.5 per cent of respondents believe AI-generated images and videos should be clearly labelled, a figure that holds consistently across every generation surveyed, from 76.9 per cent of Gen Z to 84.6 per cent of Gen X.
“AI is not creating the Trust Crisis, but it is accelerating it,” Laurie said. “When nearly three quarters of Aussies are worried about distinguishing AI content from the real thing, and when the journalists producing that content share many of the same concerns, we are looking at a structural challenge across the entire information ecosystem.”
The journalist concern she references is significant. The Medianet 2026 Australian Media Landscape Report, drawing on a survey of more than 800 journalists, found that 54 per cent now use generative AI tools in their work, up from 37 per cent a year earlier. At the same time, concern among journalists about AI’s impact on integrity has reached a record high of 93 per cent.
For SME owners using AI to generate website copy, product descriptions, social content, or review responses, the message from the data is clear. Customers are increasingly attuned to content that feels generated rather than genuine, and their tolerance for it is low.
“Brands and publishers that get ahead of this will be better placed to earn trust, while those who don’t use real people in an authentic way will be left behind,” Laurie said.
What SMEs can do right now
The trust crisis is real, but it is also an opportunity. When customers are sceptical of everyone, the businesses that can demonstrate genuine authenticity stand out sharply.
The Oysterly data points to four things that move the needle. First, real customer content. User-generated photos, unscripted video reviews, and genuine testimonials carry more weight than polished brand content. Asking happy customers to share their experience, whether in a Google review, a social post, or a short video, costs little and builds credibility that advertising cannot replicate.
Second, consistency across sources. Sixty per cent of consumers trust businesses with a significant number of reviews, and 95 per cent become suspicious if there are no negative reviews at all, suggesting that an entirely perfect rating looks manufactured rather than genuine. A mix of honest, detailed reviews across multiple platforms is more convincing than a collection of five-star ratings with no substance behind them.
Third, transparency about sponsored or paid content. With 77.8 per cent of Australians already struggling to tell paid from independent content, any business that blurs that line risks losing the trust of the very customers it is trying to attract.
Fourth, community presence. Whether that means engaging genuinely in Facebook groups, industry forums, or local community pages, showing up in spaces where your customers already talk to each other is more effective than broadcasting at them.
“Australians have clearly communicated to us that disclosure is a baseline expectation,” Laurie said. “The volume of content online has never been higher, but confidence in that content is at an all-time low.”
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