Expleo survey: 36 per cent of German executives trust fully AI-written communication less
According to the Expleo AI Pulse of 22 September 2026, 36 per cent of executives surveyed in Germany would trust a company less if its communication came entirely from AI. Only 22 per cent would trust it more. In junior management, 47 per cent say trust falls.
What happened
The engineering and consulting services provider Expleo published the 13th wave of its monthly “AI Pulse” on 22 September 2026; retail-news picked up the figures on 26 September. For it, the agency Opinium surveyed 200 executives each in Germany, Ireland, the UK and France in August 2026, from IT, financial services, insurance, retail, engineering, and transport and logistics. In Germany, 36 per cent would trust a company less if they believed its communication to be fully AI-generated, 22 per cent more, and 39 per cent see no difference. Across the four countries there is a gradient by hierarchy: owners and founders trust such communication more in 45 per cent of cases and less in 27 per cent, while in junior management trust falls for 47 per cent and rises for only 19 per cent.
Who is affected
B2B sales teams that have first contact, follow-ups and proposals written by AI tools. Also sales leaders currently deciding how far to automate prospecting.
Assessment
The most interesting figure is not the 36 but the 47. Junior management is where the people sit who read a proposal first, compare it and pass it upwards. If precisely this level distrusts an email that is recognisably machine-written, automated first contact does not fail with the boss but at the filter before them. The owner, who is more open, often never gets to see the email.
I consider AI in sales a good tool for research, preparation and follow-up work. The point at which one person commits to something for another is not part of that. Anyone explaining terms to a merchant or proposing a meeting to a buyer must visibly stand behind it themselves. The survey measures perception, not closing rates, but in sales trust is the currency in which the bill is ultimately paid.
What to do now
- Check all automated prospecting templates for whether a recipient would recognise them as pure machine text.
- Use AI for research and drafting, but personally revise every first contact before sending and add a concrete reference to the customer.
- Agree as a team which messages never go out without human approval, such as proposals, prices and commitments.