The public AI backlash has begun.
Even as our usage of AI continues to grow exponentially (the 2026 Jacobs Techsurvey showed that 61% of radio listeners use AI at least occasionally), we’re feeling lots of unease about AI that’s intercepting human jobs or creativity.
Compare the reaction of two different graduation speeches this month:
- Magic Johnson received a positive reception from Tuskegee graduates imploring them to understand the nuances of AI to take advantage of new job opportunities. He followed up with reinforcing a dream-big-and-work-hard message as a man who grew up “with the peanut butter but not the jelly.”
- Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, on the other hand, got booed for several minutes at University of Arizona’s commencement ceremony while attempting to deliver a technophilic speech about AI’s inevitability — wrapped in opportunity — for the class of 2026.
Another notable outcry occurred with the release of NFL team schedules. If you haven’t seen them, every spring each NFL team releases a super-creative video announcing their next season’s schedule. Each team’s video usually has a different pop culture or comedic theme and includes both chest-puffing and opponent ribbing. (Check out the outstanding Charger’s Halo video and the Colt’s Simpson’s video here.)
This year’s video by the Cardinals was skewered for its AI elements and has gotten fewer than 500 likes, while, on the other hand, the Packers posted a video showing their hand-made models and sets used in the creation of their video.
Despite the public damnation of certain types of AI, the utility of artificial intelligence is moving the technology forward. A Harvard Business Review article from January shows that 74% of GenZs use chatbots monthly, with 65% of young adults using AI as a substitute for Google. This is why Google revealed massive changes during Google IO, its annual show-and-tell conference.
Google unveiled the biggest change they’ve made to their search box in decades, more fully integrating AI into general search, allowing for longer, more specific search queries, with the ability for users to follow-up on their initial requests.
The takeaway from commencement stages, NFL schedule drops, and Google conference is the same. People don’t hate AI. They hate AI at the expense of people. They booed Eric Schmidt talking down to them, not the technology itself. They roasted the Cardinals because their video lacked the human-craft that other teams’ videos had. The line is clear: use it to get better, not to replace the humans your audience actually cares about.
But here’s the other big takeaway for sellers and marketers: Users want easy. They always have. (That’s why most people listen to radio in the car.) If Google is rebuilding its entire search experience around AI-driven answers, the way your clients’ customers find local businesses is shifting fast. That means radio sellers need to shift with them. Your job isn’t just selling spots anymore. It’s helping advertisers understand a landscape where the old playbook of “just Google it” is becoming “just ask AI for the answer.”
That makes radio (and its sellers) more important, not less. If AI is serving up the answers directly, fewer people are clicking through to websites and listings. That makes independent, trusted media even more critical at the top of the funnel. Brand awareness, familiarity, and human trust moves people before they ever type a query. Radio has always done that. But now you need to be making that case to every client, in every pitch, every single week.
Along with his duties at Jacobs Media, Chris develops revenue opportunities for jācapps’ mobile apps clients.
- What the AI Backlash Means for Radio - May 22, 2026
- YouTube Just Told the World What Radio Has Known for Decades - April 24, 2026
- The Political (Advertising) Winds Are Changing - April 10, 2026
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